


My best friend, the Monster

by headraline



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Also kind of, Childhood Friendship, Dark Undertones, Growing Up Together, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, M/M, Monster!AU, Monster!Elijah, Monster!Josh, Monster!Leo, Monster!Lucy, Monster!Luther, Monster!Markus, More characters to come, Original Character(s), Other, Rescue, Strangers to Lovers, Thirsty Connor, Thirsty Markus, a healthy dose of pining too, because that is a thing too, good dad Hank, it would seem, kind of, monster sexytimes, monster!Carl, more monsters than y'all can possibly imagine, not really - Freeform, rated M because Monsters, rating upped to E just to be safe, we all know where this is going let's be honest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2019-11-13 20:31:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 59,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18038483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/headraline/pseuds/headraline
Summary: “Dad… dad!!! I think there’s a monster under my bed!!!”“…Kiddo, we’ve talked about this. There’s no monsters.”“Can you still check? Please?”





	1. What goes 'giggle' in the night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mimoru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimoru/gifts), [RebelMage](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelMage/gifts).



> Y'ALL I NEED TO GET DRESSED AND GO OUT REAL QUICK BUT I WANTED TO POST THIS BECAUSE FUCK IT.
> 
> Maybe later I'll have enough brainpower for notes.  
> Please love me. ♥

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BIG EDIT: one of the awesome peeps in the rk1k discord made a drawing of child!Connor and it's adorable! [He's got Sumo pjs, come on!](https://www.instagram.com/p/By9Ow8ZjS62/)  
> They're [deviant number rk300](https://www.instagram.com/deviant_number_rk300/), go and give 'em some love! ♥

Connor opens his eyes when he hears something thump underneath his bed.

He squeezes them shut again; throwing his sheets over his face and holds his breath for thirty seconds. In the silence, there’s another thump, then a noise that sounds definitely like a groan.

Shooting out of his bed as fast as his five-year-old legs can take him, he runs to knock on his father’s door.

“Dad… dad!!!” he whisper-shouts, “I think there’s a monster under my bed!!!”

It doesn’t take long for his father to wake up with a groan, stumble out of his bed and open the door for his distressed little boy. Connor is likely more mature than most boys his age, what with having to deal with the fact that mommy dearest just walked out on them when he was little… well, littl _er_ … but at times like this, with those eyes big and bright with unshed tears and curly hair still messy from sleep, Hank is really reminded of how _small_ Connor actually is.

Poor baby, just at that age where anything that goes ‘bump’ in the night is terrifying. “…Kiddo, we’ve talked about this. There’s no monsters.”

“Can you still check? Please?”

How to resist the puppy eyes? Hank sighs and nods at his son. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

Connor tugs on his father’s hand, leading him eagerly into his room bare feet making soft taps along the floorboards. When they get there, the child hangs back at the doorway while Hank goes in with a nonplussed expression.

“Alright, let’s check the usual suspects…” Hank fights the urge to shake his head— Connor is at that age where all sights and sounds spark an imaginative reaction, so he doesn’t try too hard to refute anything and everything his boy says, focusing instead on reassuring him and making sure he keeps a healthy approach to things. “Closet’s clear… window’s nice and locked…” he kneels by the bed with a slight groan of effort, “Nothing but a couple toys down here.”

There’s a bouncy ball and a big plushie of some kind, it’s hard to see in the dark, it might be the squeaky one that he got for Connor when he was 3, and probably the culprit for the ‘monster’ noise.

“Is it gone?” Connor asks from the door, fidgeting with his little hands. Hank can’t hold back the smile.

“Sure seems gone.”

The child finally steps in the room and hugs Hank while he’s still kneeling. “Okay. Thanks, dad.”

His father hugs back and rests his chin against Connor’s forehead for a moment. “Get some sleep, kiddo.”

Connor does feel safer even when Hank leaves the room after wishing him goodnight, but it only lasts for about five minutes: just as he’s about to climb back onto his bed, he hears another sound.

This time though, it’s a sound he knows all too well— the sniffle of a child who’s been crying and is trying to hold it in. He remembers making that sound himself when his dad tried to explain to him why mommy wasn’t coming back.

Cautiously, he lowers by the side of the bed, until he’s lying flat on the floor, facing the dark area underneath it. Gathering his courage, he whispers: “Hello?”

From the shadows, there’s the slightest gasp, and then more sniffles as if whoever was crying is now trying to stop. “H-hello…”

Oh wow. It sounds like a kid, just like him. Suddenly, this is not so scary anymore. He can’t quite see them in the shadows, except for their eyes –they’re two different colors, the right one blue and the left one green, and so bright that they kind of light up a bit of their face, but it’s mostly just darkness all around. “I’m Connor. What’s your name?”

“My name is Markus.” The darkness replies, light flickering curiously in his eyes.

Markus it’s a boy’s name, Connor thinks, and he smiles: maybe it’s not a monster at all! Maybe it’s a friend!

“Why were you crying, Markus?”

“I wasn’t crying!”

“Yes, you were…”

“Was not!”

“Were too!”

The back and forth seems to make the strange kid hesitate in the shadows, and eventually he concedes: “I… I’m stuck.”

“You’re stuck under my bed?” Connor blinks in confusion: that’s easily fixed, not a crying matter… but Markus’ eyes disappear for a second and it takes him a while to figure that it’s because the other closed them and seemingly shakes his head.

“No!” he whispers back, “I’m stuck in your world, until morning!”

“Oh…” that’s… slightly more concerning. “How come?”

Blue and green reappear, bright and mesmerizing, but Markus still sounds quite distressed: “I shadow-jumped and can’t go back.”

It’s starting to sound like one of the cool stories Hank reads to him from time to time. Maybe he and Markus will become best friends and be superheroes together? That would be awesome! “What’s that mean?”

“I… can’t say.”

“Oh, come on! You’re under _my_ bed, you _have_ to tell me!” Connor complains, not understanding such a need for secrets, “Maybe I can help? Why don’t you come out?”

Markus seems to cower in place at the mere idea. “I don’t wanna! It’s too bright out there!”

“Bright?” Connor looks around his room. It’s not quite pitch black, but it’s definitely not bright at all. “But it looks so dark!”

“To you, maybe…” Markus says, curling up even more into himself, “It’s much darker where I’m from. I can hop through shadows, but they have to be really, really dark… the shadows in here are too faint, so I can’t go back until morning comes, and this shadow gets darker.”

Connor doesn’t really understand, but he figures if the other is so sure, then it’s true. “Does light hurt you?”

“Not really… it just feels too bright.”

“Does it scare you?”

“No it doesn’t!” comes way too fast and way too high-pitched.

Connor smiles to himself. “Do you want me to keep you company?”

He can’t be too sure with the darkness, but he thinks he sees Markus smile back.

And just like that, the two children keep making conversation back and forth, uncaring of the fact that they come from two different dimensions, two different realities even— both needed a friendly voice to stave off the fear in the dead of night; and they just so happened to find each other.

Eventually, Connor falls asleep still lying on the floor. Markus watches him for a few minutes, until he gathers his courage and crawls out of his hiding place— everything is way too bright, but he lets himself adjust to it and looks around.

Things don’t really look too different from the shadow realm, and that can’t be comfortable. He gingerly grabs Connor at the shoulders, lifting him up with a bit of help from his tail, and manages to heave the other kid on his bed, where he belongs.

Not knowing what else to do, Markus lies down on the floor where Connor had been, and tries to get some sleep in too, before he can go back.

The uncomfortable glare of the first rays of sunshine wakes him up, and he was just about to crawl back under the bed when Connor wakes too.

“…Markus?” frozen like a deer in headlights, he can’t do anything but listen as Connor continues: “Will you come back next time?”

“Um… sure.” He mumbles, unsure but unwilling to say goodbye for good, “If I’m allowed to…”

Connor falls back on his pillow with a grin and Markus dives for the darkness before his father decides to ground him for a year.

 

When Hank groggily gets up and goes in the kitchen to make himself some coffee, he finds Connor already up bright and early, drinking a small carton of peach juice at his chair.

“Hey, kiddo.” He greets, slightly perplexed, “You sleep alright?”

“Yes!” his boy gives him a big grin so whatever woke him up this early can’t have been bad. “You know, in the end it wasn’t a monster at all! I mean it kind of was, but he’s a kid, like me! And we’re friends now!”

“Friends?” Hank is slightly worried by that statement, so he prompts his son to elaborate.

“Uh-huh!” Connor nods enthusiastically, “His name is Markus, he has one green eye and the other blue, and he has cool horns all over here…” he points to his hairline, then moves his hands at his temples, “And two stripes here and here! His skin is dark and a bit stripy, kind of like a tiger! And he has a tail, I think!”

Ah. An imaginary friend. Hank suppresses a sigh of relief –much better to experience your son’s wild creative mind rather than a break in. Kids do this all the time, and Connor probably just did that so he has a reason not to be scared of the dark anymore. He will likely grow out of it eventually, but for now there’s no harm in playing along.

“Oh really? Tell me all about him!”

Hank spends the next hour or so listening to all the fantastic things Connor has to say about his new friend, the ‘shadow-person’. However outlandish and strange the kid’s tales are, they seem to have thoroughly distracted Connor from the idea of starting school, and he’s not even nervous about his first day anymore— which was what Hank thought the reason for last night’s restlessness and fear were about.

It’s all good now, apparently, thanks to ‘Markus’.

 

School is amazing, according to Connor’s enthusiastic recounting: there are a few asshole kids here and there, but there’s _‘so much cool stuff to learn’_ and a lot of other children have ‘magical friends’ too.

Hank is both confused and relieved, and proceeds to ask Connor if he’s made any other friends yet.

Connor nods, telling him about the girl who yelled at the kid who was making fun of him for talking about Markus, and the shy blonde kid who told Connor about _his_ friend. Most of all, though, Connor can’t wait to tell Markus all about his first day in school.

After all, Markus promised to come back. And he does.

They spend half the night talking in the same position as the night before, exchanging stories since funnily enough it was also Markus’ first day in school— then it becomes quite late, and neither of them can string more than ten words together without yawning.

Connor tries to stay there, but Markus insists that he go up and into his proper bed: he’ll be fine under it; he’s comfy as long as there’s a shadow.

 

Time passes, and Connor makes good friends with North, the girl who defended his stories about Markus, Simon, the kid who mentioned having a similar friend; and finally Kara, who says she’s friends with a giant. Apparently, North has a friend too: her name is Lucy and she has half a head with tentacles growing out of it.

They start sticking together on the playground, telling each other stories about their friends.

Connor hears Hank and the other parents talk about it, calling Markus, Josh, Lucy and Luther ‘imaginary’ friends. He’s confused, Markus seems pretty real to him, but maybe grown-ups just can’t understand how the shadow-realm works.

But that’s okay. Most of the other kids don’t either, and shadow-people are kinda shy anyway.

It takes him weeks before he can convince Markus to step out of under the bed while he’s still awake.

“Just… don’t be scared?”

“I won’t be scared! We’re friends!” Connor assures, watching intently as Markus finally steps out and stands up.

Markus is shorter than him, but he does indeed have the horns he thought he glimpsed that first time. His eyes also seem to emanate light, which might be because the part of his eyes that should be white is actually black, so they just _look_ shinier. His skin is very dark and stripy in places, he’s just wearing a pair of trousers tied at the hip with a string, but they cut at the knee and Connor can see that Markus’ feet are more like paws than actual feet.

And yes, he does have a tail.

“This is so cool!” Connor exclaims, trying to keep his voice down all the same, “Can you jump on walls like a cat???”

Fidgeting slightly under the scrutiny, Markus shrugs. “Maybe? I haven’t really tried.”

When the commotion from ‘trying’ brings Hank worriedly barging into the room, Connor is cross-legged on his bed and simply points to a corner of the room.

“I was just playing with Markus! See?”

Hank doesn’t. A bunch of books and other crap fell from the shelf in the corner, but the thing has always been a bit rickety.

“…Right.” He sighs, shaking his head, “Well, tell Markus it’s a school night, okay? Get some sleep.”

Turning to leave, Hank does a slight double-take: the corner of the room seems darker than usual, as if the shadows clinging to the wall were… denser, somehow. Damn, his son is damn good at make-believe if _he’s_ second-guessing his own two eyes.

Still, hearing Connor giggle by himself rather than fear what isn’t there can only be a good thing: at least he won’t grow to be scared of the dark.

As soon as the door closes, Markus lifts his cape and lets it dissolve.

“Sorry about that.” He tells Connor, walking back towards the bed to sit together. “I got permission to come back and play with you as much as we want, but only if I don’t let any grownups see me.”

“Are your parents worried?”

Markus lowers his gaze. “Just my dad. He got hurt in the human world a long time ago, and now he can’t walk no more.”

That sounds very sad. Connor reaches out a hand to pat Markus’ shoulder. “What about your mom?”

“I don’t know where my momma is.”

Oh. “Me neither.”

They both fall silent for a while, the atmosphere getting slightly gloomier, until Markus breaks the stillness:

“Hey, wanna see a cool trick I can do?” he hops down from the bed, grabs Connor’s bouncy ball from the floor, throws it lightly in the air with his hand and hits it to the opposite wall with a smack of his tail.

The little colorful ball gets propelled in literally every direction, a right mess of bounces and thuds, making Connor laugh when it eventually flies right for Markus and the kid has to duck not to be hit in the face.

Markus feels like he should be mad at the other for laughing, but at least Connor isn’t sad anymore.

He likes Connor better when he smiles.

 

Connor grows up at perfect ease with the dark, finding it soothing, even.

He and Markus see each other less, because Markus has school too; or maybe because Hank was right about this imaginary friend thing— North has been talking about Lucy less and less, Simon barely mentions Josh anymore unless it’s to reminisce about their childhood antics, and Kara doesn’t really bring up Luther the friendly giant either.

Still, whenever he feels too lonely or too lost, Connor can still turn out all the lights in his room and wait until his eyes grow accustomed to the dark: Markus will be there, and he can confide his fears and worries, say all the things he wouldn’t admit to any real life people.

‘Markus’ even helps him not to let wannabe bullies get to him, teaches him to backtalk and put jackasses back in their place… he even helped getting over his anxiety about asking out his first high-school girlfriend.

Not like _that_ particular endeavor goes too well, though.

“I don’t know, I don’t think we’ll last.” He tells his shadow-friend one late evening, from his usual cross-legged stance atop his mattress, in his pjs.

Markus is lying face-down on the floor at the bedside, forearms propped down so he can lean his face up to look at Connor. “Why not?”

“It’s almost like… I don’t really like her?” Connor says, sounding unsure even to himself, “I mean I do like her, she’s great as a friend… but I don’t… _like_ her, you get me?”

His shadow friend just hums in understanding. “Do you maybe like some other girl? Like North?”

“ _God,_ no!!!” Connor bursts out laughing at the mere thought of him and North as a couple. “No, it’s none of the other girls…”

He says it in a chuckle, but then his words kinda freeze in his mouth when he realizes what it means. Markus doesn’t say anything either, leaving him to mull over the thought: _is_ he into guys?

He might be.

There _is_ that one dude in their PE class that gives Connor weird shivers whenever he takes his shirt off in the locker rooms.

Well, shit. Hopefully Chloe knows how to keep a secret— she’s quite sweet, he’s just not quite ready to be that open when he’s barely figuring himself out.

As it happens, if Markus really is a manifestation of Connor’s inner feelings, it’s a damn good one, because ‘he’ convinces Connor to be upfront with his father and ask for advice.

The conversation that follows, just before summer break, is one that Connor will deeply treasure:

“Um… dad?”

Hank just looks up at him from his position on the couch. “Hey, kiddo what’s up? You having trouble with homework?”

“No! No, that’s fine; I just… wanted to talk to you.” He doesn’t even know what he’s so nervous about— at the time, he was too young to understand, but Hank did the best he could with him, especially as a single parent. Rationally, Connor knows his father would love him and accept him. Emotionally? He’s still nervous as fuck.

He wishes Markus was real, so he could at least hold his friend’s hand.

Sensing his unease, Hank turns to face him fully. “Connor, you don’t look too good. Is there something wrong?”

Connor takes a deep breath. “Not really? At least, I don’t think so…” he says, moving closer to try and sit by Hank’s side. “Just… how would you feel, hypothetically, if I told you… that I was into guys?”

It takes a moment for his father to catch up to what was being said, because Connor utters the last five words very fast and all in one breath. When it finally does click, Hank lets out a huff:

“ _Jesus Christ_ , kid, is that it??? I thought something bad was going on, jeez…” not the most poetic or wise response, but reassuring nonetheless.

“You’re… cool with it?”

Hank looks almost offended at Connor’s disbelief.

“Why wouldn’t I be? It’s _your_ business who you like and who you don’t.” he explains with a shrug, “It’s like ice cream, you know? You like some flavors better over others, because you just do. It’s not something you get to decide.”

Connor feels his shoulders relax in relief, and he sends a mental thanks to Markus –imaginary or not, the shadow-person is still the best friend he’s ever had. “I don’t know, I was just… nervous, I guess.”

“Hey. It’s okay to be nervous about things.” Hank assures him, placing a hand on his shoulder and looking at him square in the eyes. “You’re still so young. You’ve got plenty of things to see, feel and learn; it will probably scare the fuck outta you.” Privately, Connor muses that his father kind of sucks at pep talks, but lets him continue: “Still… you are who you are. And if you’re gonna bring a boyfriend home rather than a girlfriend, I’m still gonna wish you to be happy and safe, I’m still gonna give you embarrassing talks that will be awkward for the both of us; and I’m still gonna be your father. You can always talk to me, kiddo. About anything.”

Okay, maybe Hank’s pep-talks don’t suck _too_ bad. Connor leans forward for a hug, hiding his face in his father’s shoulder.

“Thanks, dad.”

At times like this, Hank gets reminded of when Connor was little and would ask him to check for monsters under the bed. He hugs back with a smile. “Anytime, kiddo.”

 

Summer break comes and goes, and Connor doesn’t see Markus throughout— maybe because he didn’t spend it home, but away with his close friends. Whatever the case, he sees him less and less with time; until he doesn’t really remember when he last looked around his room to find his imaginary friend.

He never really forgets about Markus, though, even after years.

It would be impossible to –Markus was otherworldly, like only a child could conceive. The different colored eyes, the horns, the tail… even ‘growing up’ as _he_ grew up, Markus kept those unearthly traits and just looking at him was downright mesmerizing.

Coming to think of it, his fantasies of Markus should have probably been a hint about his sexual awakening.

He has a good laugh about it with North and the others when they find some old drawings at one point; during one of the reunions they usually spent hanging out for beers and Mario Kart at North’s place.

“Oh, _damn_!” North exclaims as they compare, “No wonder Markus was always shirtless in your drawings!”

Connor snatches his drawing back in protest, but he’s laughing too. “Hey! Apparently it was because he had a high temperature to survive the cold darkness of the shadow-world, and would overheat if he wore too many clothes in ours.”

“No way, really?” Simon pipes up, leaning forward to look over Connor’s shoulder, “That’s the same reason I thought of for Josh!”

When they put the drawings side by side, they’re actually kind of similar as well. It’s definitely two different people, but the skin tone is similar, both have a tail and horns, even though they’re differently shaped, and Josh’s eyes are gold.

“We must have talked about it at some point and influenced each other…”

“And you’re both hopeless gay disasters.” North holds back a snort, though her amusement is short lived once Simon points to her drawing of Lucy:

“Not like you have room to talk, _Little Miss Tentacles_.”

“Hey! Fuck you, Lucy was an Eldritch abomination and she was _beautiful_ , ok?” She gets only a little bit defensive, because to be completely fair her imaginary friend also is rather scantily clad in her drawing.

By her side, Kara chuckles nervously. “I _don’t_ like what the direction this conversation is going towards says about me…”

There’s a split second of silence at memories of Luther the de facto _giant_ , and the implication that would have, now that they’re all adults. They all burst out in laughter simultaneously.

It’s probably the best outing in a long time. It brings a fond smile to Connor’s face that stays all the way home later that night, back to his apartment. He doesn’t live home anymore –though he didn’t move too far away and Hank always says he can come home for anything– but he still finds himself sitting cross-legged on his bed, wearing only his sweatpants and closing his eyes like he used to when he wanted to ‘summon’ Markus.

He feels silly, but it’s out of his lips before he can stop himself: “I kinda miss you, you know? I wonder what you would be doing… where you would be… Markus.”

Suddenly, a loud _thump_ just underneath him nearly makes Connor jump out of his skin.

It can’t be. Surely it’s just his imagination— he’s not crazy, he probably just played too many fantasy games… right?

The groan and definite shuffle of movement across the floorboards seem to disagree.

Connor scrambles to his feet and off the bed, eyes wide. “What the—”

The figure that emerges with some difficulty from under his bed is much larger than he remembers, Markus was rather petite compared to him when he was a teenager, but the shapes and colors are unmistakable, especially the differently colored eyes looking around the room before landing on him, in all the glory of their black sclera and slight bioluminescence.

Either this is one hell of a lucid dream, or his imaginary friend is not so imaginary after all and had a _surprising_ growth spurt.

There are probably a million things that Connor could do or say, that would make for a healthier, saner reaction, but all he’s got after a couple tries opening and closing his mouth fruitlessly is:

“…Markus?”

The shadow-man smiles at him, the barest hint of fangs poking out of his lower lip.

“You remember me.” He says, voice just slightly breathless with a little disbelief. “Hello, Connor.”

This is going to be hard to explain to Hank.


	2. Catching up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good morning, sleepyhead.”
> 
>  
> 
> _“Gah!!!”_
> 
>  
> 
> Connor was not prepared to still see Markus before him in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY, CHAPTER TWO!!!!  
> Once an idea grips me, it's hard to make it let go.  
> Pole AU is still coming soon, this just yoinked me hard because I love monsters and D&D-inspired shit.
> 
> it's still starting very slow and a lot of this chapter is basically exposition and world-building, but we're gonna meet the others in the next one!!!  
> ...yay?
> 
> pls love me. <3

Connor is still in shock. He blinks owlishly at the bona fide apparition standing in his bedroom, not really knowing what to say, or even think.

Markus stands tall, at 6 feet and then some, he cuts an impressive figure of toned muscle and mythical traits –a textbook definition of _Tall, Dark and Handsome_ – and to add insult or injury it looks like the habit of going around shirtless hasn't waned _one bit_. Eyes wandering downwards on instinct, Connor notices that both his nipples are pierced with little barbells.

His mouth suddenly feels _very_ dry.

"But... you're not real!" His rational mind fights with everything it has against what he's seeing right before him, so Connor clings to denial a little while longer. "You were just an imaginary friend I made up as a child!"

Markus takes a few steps towards him. "No, Connor." He says, with a deeper and smoother voice than Connor remembers, "We were childhood friends. Then you started believing I was imaginary and I had been told it was better to let you." There's a slightly nostalgic smile on the monster's face as he talks, "We never touched each other past age 13, and you had no reason to believe anything like a shadow-hopping monster could exist... but I can prove to you that I am _very real_."

Yeah, Connor's had _that_ dream before. He swallows empty air, before asking the question: "How?"

Closing the remaining distance between them, Markus reaches for Connor's wrist and drags the arm up, splaying the other's hand against his own chest.

It doesn't immediately become apparent, but after a moment Connor notices: a heartbeat, steady and strong just underneath the palm of his hand.

_Markus' skin is just as warm as when they were kids._

He startles with a gasp and a step back when that thought crosses his mind.

"Holy shit!!!" He nearly shouts, looking around for hidden cameras or two way mirrors, anything that could dispel this as a prank, but he finds nothing. Stepping forward to Markus again, Connor lifts his hand on his own accord and brings it to the monster's cheek. "Holy... shit... this is real."

For his part, Markus closes his eyes at the contact, almost as if he doesn't believe it himself.

When he reopens them, he has to take a slightly trembling breath to muster up his voice without it breaking. "Hi, Connor. It's been a while."

"Markus, I..." rationally, his next reaction is almost silly, Connor knows that. Even if one were to take into consideration how long it's been since they saw each other, catching up with an old friend should be nothing short of joyful. Instead, there are already tears in his eyes before he even finished the motion of hugging Markus at the neck.

The monster seems only slightly startled. "Woah, ok, we're doing this..."

"I haven't seen you in years and thought you weren't even real for over a decade. Let me hug the fuck out of you."

Chuckling, Markus lets his human friend have this, and he hugs Connor back at the waist.

"There, there... I'm here now."

They just stand there, hugging in the middle of the room in complete silence, until Markus clears his voice somewhat awkwardly and breaks the embrace.

"So!" He starts cheerfully. "How have you been this last couple of years?"

"How have I been?! Where do I even start?! I... _you're freaking real_!!!" Connor exclaims, breaking up halfway through his words in little disbelieving chuckles. "Tell me about _you_ , instead! Your world, your life... I can't believe how self-absorbed I was..."

Markus shakes his head. "It's okay."

After all, if you think you're talking to a figment of your own imagination, all conversation tends to always be about yourself. Connor couldn't have known.

Still, he looks up at Markus earnestly –though he hates that he has to look _up_ , now.

"It's not okay... I've been a shitty friend. Give me the chance to remedy that."

Knowing Connor well enough to be more than aware that he won't be backing out from this any time soon, Markus nods and turns to go sit on the bed, tail swishing behind him as he walks.

"Ok. What do you wanna know?"

Connor has to break himself from his reverie to actually follow and go sit by Markus' side.

"Well... first off... where exactly do you come from?" He asks, bringing up his legs to cross them just like when they were kids. "What is your life like?"

He suspected that would be a loaded question, but just hearing Markus' voice again is already so good -he didn't realize how much he missed it until hearing it again.

Markus tells him about the shadow realm, existing simultaneously and organically entwined with the physical reality of humans, separated from it by light and shadow like a layer of cling film separates an object from the air around it— at least, that's the best way Markus can find to put the concept into words.

Shadow-hopping is normal for creatures like him, deep shadows are like windows they can just step through, however it is taxing on the body and mind, which is why he needed very definite shapes to jump through as a child and could only do it twice a night at most, once to step into the human world, once to go back.

"So you grew stronger the older you got..." Connor guesses it makes sense, but if that's the case one thing doesn't add up: "Why did you stop coming to see me, then?"

Markus lowers his eyes. It's the first ever time Connor sees him bashful. "Well... the shadow world exists in parallel with this –same nature, largely same history barring a few differences... so as you had to go to school and graduated, so did I and then..." he tries looking up into Connor's eyes, but his gaze lowers again within a few seconds, as if his words were kind of painful to get out. "Then you fully stopped believing I was ever real, and I just... didn't have the guts to face that, I guess."

Of course. It must have felt terrible to have to acknowledge that your closest friend doesn't believe you exist.

It's Connor's turn to cast his eyes down.

" _God_ , I feel like such an asshole!" He exclaims, even though he knows saying it out loud won't change the past. He turns sideways slightly, just enough to grasp Markus' face at the side and make the other turn to face him: "Markus, I'm so sorry. If I had known..."

Markus' hands promptly go to cover his. They're so, so warm.

"You couldn't have known." He repeats, "I was instructed to deceive you, for my own safety. I knew it would hurt eventually."

Indeed. Connor doesn't even want to imagine what would have happened if Hank or, God forbid, a stranger found out about Markus.

His father is not a particularly religious man, but Markus looks pretty much like a demon. Explaining about the shadow-people would have required a self-control that Connor did not possess at the time, not to mention keeping Hank from freaking out long enough to even try.

Forced containment in some government facility and genetic experimentation are only the most obvious scenarios Connor can come up with, which is worrying in and of itself.

"Still... it doesn't make what happened right."

Eyes as shiny and captivating as they were when he was just a monster child hiding under a bed, Markus gives Connor a grin just this side of mischievous, showing a row of surprisingly sharp teeth.

"Maybe not." He concedes, "But I'm here now, right? We can make up for lost time."

In all their past years together, Connor cannot remember even one occasion in which he ever saw Markus wink before.

It makes his stomach do a weird flippy somersault.

He just barely catches himself in time _not_ to stare at Markus’ very bare and very toned chest again, while simultaneously trying not to remember that Markus _was there_ when Connor discovered his attraction steers exclusively towards men.

Mentally scrambling for something to say, he asks: “Does the light still hurt your eyes?”

“Yes, but I’m strong enough to manage.”

Connor s still low-key reeling that this is at all happening. His imaginary friend his real! Does this mean his friends’ ones also are? He suddenly wants to ask.

“Hey… you don’t happen to know a Josh, do you?” he clears his voice somewhat awkwardly. “A shadow-person like you, maybe a bit taller, gold eyes…?” he lets his word drift off into a question, but when he looks at Markus’ face he finds genuine surprise on it:

“V-shaped scar on the side of his left shoulder?”

“Yes?” At least, yes according to Simon’s drawing.

“I’ll be goddamned.” Markus chuckles and shakes his head. “Josh is a cousin of mine! Why do you ask? Did Josh show himself to someone you know?”

“Yeah, he used to be good friends with Simon!” Con answers, excitement growing the more he can wrap his mind around the reality of all that’s happening, “You remember Simon, right?”

The shadow-man nods. “Simon is your cute blonde classmate, whom you never asked out, for some reason.”

Connor actually snorts at that. “Yeah, right. He only ever had eyes for Josh…” the more he thinks about it, the better it gets. “Oh and you remember North? She used to have an Eldritch friend named Lucy!”

“Blueish skin, pointy face, tentacles growing from the back of her head and inverted knee-joints?” At Connor’s confirmation, Markus lets out a low whistle. “North has friends in high places, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Oh gosh, what about Kara?!”

“Kara?” Markus blinks briefly, but Connor carries on:

“The _giant_! Luther! His eyes are made of fire!”

Thinking for a second, Markus eventually snaps his fingers in remembrance. “Oh yeah, Luther! Nice dude. Hell of a poker face!”

A wave of excitement shakes Connor enough that he stands up. “This is great! We can all get together, and finally the stories we used to tell each other as kids won’t be stories anymore! This is going to be—”

“Connor, wait.” The shadow-man interrupts, sobering him up a little, “It will probably sound awful to say, but… do you trust your friends with a truth like this?”

In the last hour or so, Connor has been confused and unsure about most things, but not this. He answers with no hesitation and no doubt. “Yes. It’s gonna blow their minds, but none of them would hurt their best friend.”

Any traces of worries that were on Markus’ face before soften into a fond smile, and he stands up as well.

“You know, I’m glad you’ve found such good friends in life.” He says, “Growing up pretending to be your imaginary friend kind of made me feel like a guardian angel of sorts… even though I look exactly the opposite, heh.”

“Please, I’d take you over a grown-ass man in diapers and wings _any_ day.”

“That’s an awfully specific imagery.”

“Well I always was a weird kid.”

Markus has to bite his lower lip to refrain from laughing again. “Yeah, fair enough.”

“So, uh…” it’s a herculean effort not to stare at that chest. Connor coughs awkwardly again. “Could you maybe… put a shirt on? I know I never cared before, but… we’re… not kids anymore…”

The urge to tease is irresistible: “Aw, and old age turned you into a prude?”

“Have you considered I might have just felt bad about objectifying you by staring at your _man-boobs_?” Ah. There’s the sass Markus knows and loves, Connor’s indignant frown is just as he remembers it. “Jackass.”

Still, there’s amusement in the humans’ tone, though he decides to honor the request regardless.

“I don’t have a real shirt with me today, but I can cloak myself partially.” Reaching his hand over his shoulder just at the side of his neck, he summons his shadow-cloak and drapes it loosely over his chest –it makes his torso dissolve slightly in mass, making it look enveloped in a dense, dark fog.

“Thank you.” Connor mumbles, now eyeing him curiously, “You know, I never understood this trick.”

Thinking back on it, some of Markus’ peculiar traits make sense if one were to consider his home world: the eyes with a black sclera and bioluminescent pupils are clearly fit for an environment so dark that nights on earth ‘feel too bright’. Dark, streaked skin is also likely an evolutionary thing or a remnant of one… perhaps camouflage against larger predators. Pawed legs and tail for agility and balance, horns for intimidation… but the cloak-thing? That looks separate from his body and like straight up magic.

“This? This is a semi-immaterial fabric. It draws darkness from the shadows around it and brings it close to my body, for lack of a better definition.” Something tells Connor Markus isn’t too good at explaining how his home technology works. “Human eyes are… easily fooled. When the brain doesn’t understand what it’s seeing, it only sees darkness.”

The joke is on a silver platter: “…Sounds fake, but ok.” He wonders if memes are even a thing in the shadow-realm.

Judging by the way Markus practically doubles over in laughter, they are. It actually takes him a good few moments to collect himself.

“God, I have missed you.” It might be the slight breathlessness from the laughing fit, but those words kind of make Connor’s heart skip a beat. Markus seems happily oblivious to the effect he’s having on him. He just keeps his usual grin. “Now, as riveting as I’m _sure_ all this exposition is, how about we actually catch up for a while? For old times’ sake?”

How to deny those big, shining puppy eyes? Connor never learned to. “Okay.”

 

They spend most of the night talking the same way they used to, with Connor sitting Cross-legged on his bed and Markus lying down on the floor beside him. Markus got to hear about Connor’s first disastrous relationship –with none other than his wannabe school bully who was trying to get his attention in all the wrong ways… it started out nice, but they were just to different and spent more time fighting than kissing, so they eventually broke it off. Then, he heard Connor is actually fulfilling his dream and going to Police Academy, to become a detective just like Hank.

Shit, he’ll need to tell his father about Markus, too. _That’s_ a conversation that will probably go down in history— there’s really no good way of saying _‘Hey dad, remember the monster under my bed? He’s real and we’ve been friends for ages!’_

…he should probably not put the cart before the horse and just… cross that bridge when they get to it.

In turn, Connor gets to hear about Carl, Markus’ father, who lost the use of his legs to a man who believed he had discovered the shadow-world and a way to enter it. Carl denied being a shadow-man and this psycho hurled him through a third story window, telling him if he wanted to save himself he could always shadow-jump. To protect the secrecy of their home world, Carl didn’t, with a very predictable result. Markus also tells Connor he is studying to become a policeman of sorts himself: some types of shadow-people take a liking to preying on humans and other living creatures to siphon energy off them and make themselves more powerful, this not only has consequences on life on Earth but also often drives these creatures to devolve to a basic predator mentality and start attacking their own as well. Markus’ job will be to stop these predators and bring them to justice before they reach that critical level.

In all of that, Markus never mentions relationships or a significant other.

“It’s not that important…” he says when Connor asks, refusing to meet the human’s gaze.

Connor turns and reaches out for his arm. “Oh, come on! You appeared shirtless in my bedroom, it’s too late to get shy on me!” he teases, trying to tug Markus to him, but apparently not only did the shadow-man get taller in his growth spurt, he also got – _oh wow_ – surprisingly strong. He tries a different tactic: “You’ve listened to me all that time about girl troubles, and then boy troubles, too… I’m just curious.” But then again, this _is_ his dearest friend, and his insistence fizzles out: “You don’t have to share if you don’t want to.”

Just when Connor has stopped trying, Markus lets himself be tugged and moves up to sit on the bed by his side.

“I do want to, if you want to know…” he reassures the other, “There’s just not much to tell: any free time I have, I spend it taking care of father, and when I did have extra time on my hands… I have gone out with a few people, but nothing ever serious.”

People. Connor’s brain latches on that particular use of words: _people_. Not just girls or guys. He tries telling himself that this information is irrelevant; Markus is his good childhood friend, but no. It’s swimming around in his head.

“And none of them ever worked out?”

Markus shrugs at him in a way that sends him back years, in that moment he almost looks just like he did when they were kids. “None of them ever felt… like _the one_ person, you know?”

“I do know.”

They both fall silent for a few moments, neither knowing exactly what to say to lighten up the mood, until Markus caves and breaks the silence:

“Hey, want to see a cool trick I can do?”

It’s altogether too familiar, so Connor agrees, laughs and claps his hands when Markus proudly shows off how he can do push-ups _off his tail_ now; he’s got his best friend back, it feels like a piece of him that was missing slotted right back into place.

The only difference is that now Markus isn’t just his childhood best friend, but his _insanely attractive_ best friend— if in a weird, slightly worrying ‘what does this say about kinks I did not know I had’ way.

He doesn’t mind too much. He’ll deal with this seemingly out-of-nowhere crush in his own time, for now, he just wants to let himself enjoy the reunion.

 

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“ _Gah!!!_ ”

Connor was not prepared to still see Markus before him in the morning, his friend was always gone by dawn, hence why he jumps and flails wildly until he falls off the bed when Markus taps him on the shoulder.

“Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t think I’d scare you that bad!” the shadow-man scrambles to help him up while Connor is still wrapping his mind around being awake.

Grasping at Markus’ forearms to steady himself, Connor does his best to blink away the last remnants of sleep.

“Markus? You can walk around when it’s light?”

The amused little laugh that comes in reaction is awfully close. “I’m not a vampire, you know?”

“Right. It’s just that you used to always be gone by morning, so—”

Connor’s mind finally catches up to a few things:

One, what happened last night was not a dream; Markus is very real and still very much in his house.

Two, his shadow friend has grown up to be every D&D player’s wildest wet dream.

Three, and more worrying, Markus is here in his room at like 7 am, while Connor is wearing only his Legend of Zelda sweatpants, his hair is a mess and he probably has morning breath.

Praying every deity he knows of that none of Markus’ ‘cool tricks’ involve mind reading, he just clears his voice and breaks the hold. “Um. Thanks. Let me just… get myself together for a moment?”

“Oh— yeah, sure thing.”

 

Markus watches Connor disappear into his bathroom with a sigh. He never understood how humans can hold themselves upright without a tail as a kid, but heavens above, Connor has legs for days. He doesn’t know whether his immense fascination with his human friend makes him a creep or not, but he can’t stop taking in every detail— his skin is so… soft. He’s willing to bet Connor’s hair would be just as soft but he doubts they’re _that_ close after all these years.

And his eyes! So peculiar… humans only have two of them, but they can be so expressive. Sometimes it feels like Connor could stare through his soul.

“Get it together, Markus, you sound like a schoolboy with a crush.” He mutters to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists to stop creeping on his unsuspecting friend. A deep breath, two… and he’s ready to face the day.

He is, however, not even remotely ready to face freshly-showered Connor stepping out of his bathroom absolutely buck freaking naked.

“Shit! Sorry!!!”

He does try turning his eyes away as fast as his brain lets him, but he looked. Oh boy, he looked. “No, it’s my bad, probably should’ve gotten the hell out!”

“It’s okay, it’s just… force of habit, you know?” to his credit, Connor hurries to cover himself, “I’m used to living alone, so nudity was never a problem.”

 _It doesn’t have to be_ , a treacherous part of Markus’ mind suggests.

He squeezes his eyes shut and reminds his stupid brain that he’s not a teenager anymore; he’s got better self-control than that. After about a dozen repetitions of that mantra, he deems himself good to go and Connor has luckily put some clothes on.

“So, I was thinking…” he starts, remembering the reason he stayed behind, “If you trust your friends not to let our secret get out… then we tell them. We could all hang out!”

“Hang out? In the open..?” Connor is understandably doubtful— creatures like Markus would stand out a lot unless they go out to a Comic Convention or LARP party, but Markus seems pretty sure about it.

“Lucy, the one North is friends with, is a pretty resourceful lady. She can make disguises for all of us.”

That does sound like the fulfillment of all his childhood dreams –going on crazy adventures with Markus and his friends. Connor mulls it over for a second. The craziest part already happened, so what the hell? Might as well get the gang together.

Luckily it’s the weekend, so he doesn’t have to worry about classes at the Academy for a couple days yet, and neither does North. He’s actually smirking when he grabs his phone.

It rings once, twice…

_«_ _Do you have any fucking idea of what time it is?!_ _»_

“Good morning to you too, sunshine.” Connor cannot possibly keep the giddiness out of his voice. “Get Simon and Kara and get your butts to my apartment. I’ve got a huge surprise.”

_«_ _This better not be a setup to a dick joke._ _»_

“How long have you known me? It’s important. Get here, I promise it’ll blow your minds.”

_«_ _Fine. But I want breakfast for my efforts!_ _»_

“Deal.”

Connor isn’t even mad that she basically hangs up on him— North gets very cranky in the mornings.

The excitement is returning full-force.

“What now?” Markus asks, following him as he gets out of his room and walks towards the kitchen.

“Now we make breakfast. North is going to want a whole lot of food as payment for being disturbed.”

“Sounds like a great friend.” The shadow-man looks on curiously as Connor starts cooking, unsure whether help would be welcome or not.

His human friend makes the decision for him. “Here, watch the pan for a second while I get the toast, would you?”

There’s something surreal about just being together in the open, cooking breakfast together just like that. It feels so strangely domestic, way too ‘right’ for something that never happened before.

“Thank you.” Connor’s voice breaks him from his reverie; and Markus lets him have control of the bacon again. “You know… in all the confusion, you never told me why you came back now…”

“Oh, that…” Markus coughs awkwardly. “I, uh… I was thinking about you after ending up in a small… altercation of sort. I really wished for a safe place, and a shadow door opened up for me. I heard your voice, and I followed it.”

That was not nearly as reassuring as the shadow-man meant it to be, and Connor turns to him with a worried frown. “An ‘altercation’? Markus, are you okay?”

“I am! It’s not like I was bleeding… much.”

“Markus!!!”

“Hey, watch your bacon!”

“Fucking still!!!” Connor pays a bit more attention to his cooking, but he’s not done with talking. “That should’ve been your opening line, you _ass_! ‘Hey, man, I’m an idiot and got hurt, can I crash at your place?’ …God, Markus, were you bleeding for the whole night?!”

“Not at all! I borrowed some of your first-aid and patched myself up while you were asleep.” Markus dissolves the cloak he had kept around his chest to show Connor the shiny new square band-aid on the lower left side of his torso.

It’s fairly close to the hipbone so, considering how hard Connor had been trying _not_ to look down for the whole night, it’s understandable that he might have missed it, but the fact remains that Markus happily neglected to tell him he was hurt and waited until he fell asleep to tend to himself.

Always putting him first, just like when they were boys. Connor sighs.

“Okay, new house rule: if you’re ever hurt or bleeding, _you tell me_. None of this tough guy bullshit, alright?”

Markus’ smile is way too hard to look at while Connor is trying to be mad at him. “Alright.”

Oh who is he kidding? He’d never be able to stay mad at that face. That, and it’s way too good to have him back— to have _all of them_ back, actually, even the ones he only ever heard stories about.

He smiles to himself: North is gonna be _so_ jealous he found out first.


	3. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Please don’t freak out.”
> 
> “What the fuck is that?!”
> 
> “I said don’t freak out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop. today was one hell of a Saturday!  
> Sorry this is so short, there was clearly more world-building to get out of the way and people wanted more monsters, so...more monsters it is!  
> I always approve of more monsters.  
> Hopefully next chapter will actually feature something interesting happening.  
> I'mma go now because it's fucking four in the morning.  
> Bye. ♥

 

As promised, North is at his door within 20 minutes and has Simon and Kara with her.

“Alright, nerd.” She says in lieu of a greeting, “Where’s breakfast and what’s this about a surprise?”

He lets her hug him one-handed and does the same to the others, before ushering them into the kitchen where the smell of bacon and eggs is coming from.

“You guys are not going to believe this.” Connor lets them sit down before delivering the news: “Remember all those stories about our imaginary friend from the past?”

“Yeah, we spent a long time talking about it yesterday.” Simon mentions, “What of it?”

Connor was about to try and be a little more cryptic, but Markus was never one to stay still for too long, so there he comes, waltzing into the room in all his shadowy, horned, otherworldly glory, almost bouncing off the walls.

“Can I come out yet?”

Once more, the joke is on a silver platter. “I’ve been out for a while; it’d be rude of me not to let you.”

The others laugh at it, either distracted by Connor’s humor or not really registering the reality of Markus the Monster being right before them. The first one to recover and notice the newcomer’s peculiar appearance is Kara and, like the polite sweetheart she is, she smiles at him and introduces herself.

“Wow, that’s a look. Are you a friend of Connor? My name’s Kara.”

Markus is visibly perplexed, and looks back and forth between her and Connor.

Of course. Of course they’d think it’s a cosplay and that Connor is trying to prank them. It’s what _he_ would think, too. He takes a long, suffering breath. “Kara, guys… this is _Markus_.” He emphasizes the name. “Markus, these are the guys. Left to right: Simon, Kara and North.”

“Yeah, right.” Simon chuckles, shaking his head. “How long did it take you to set this up?”

North actually stands up and gets close to Markus: “Screw that, who did this guy’s make-up? It’s impressive!” she tries rubbing her hand over his face to see if anything comes off, “Is it all waterproof? What’s the tail made of?”

Not taking too much offense at the scrutiny, the shadow-man just gently takes North’s hand off his face and attempts a smile. “This isn’t a costume.”

“Uh-huh, and these aren’t the drones you’re looking for.”

Kara and Simon giggle at the reference, Markus searches Connor’s eyes for help but his human friend just upturns his hands in a ‘what can you do?’ motion.

Markus gets an idea: “Please don’t freak out.”

North rolls her eyes but goes along for the sake of getting whatever this is over with. “About what?”

“About this.” Markus reaches over his shoulder for his cloaking and pulls it on fully. Which, in the middle of bright freaking daylight, doesn’t really have the same camouflaging effect it has when in a dark environment, but instead just envelops him fully, giving him a look similar to that of a Grim Reaper or [other such](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/96/30/d99630c0d4730b141a63362c25241010.png) spectral beings, complete with fog that mostly dissolves his legs to conceal his steps.

North scrambles back with a start, Kara and Simon also jump in their seats.

“What the _fuck_ is that?!”

Markus promptly removes his cloaking. “I said don’t freak out!” he protests, a slight pout unconsciously finding its way on his lips.

“What— I— you… Connor?” North is genuinely at a loss for words. A rare sight, considering how strongly opinionated she usually is.

Simon and Kara are similarly stunned. Connor can recognize the look on their faces –after all, he was wearing the same look last night: none of them can’t believe what’s happening yet, but they’re all going back to those childhood memories, where there was no need for the separation between ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ to be socially acceptable.

“You mean it was all true? Shadow people, giants… all of it… real?” Kara is the first to recover, absently brushing a hand along her lips.

“It is.” Markus confirms, taking a few steps back to have a bit more space. “I can prove it to you. It took me most of the second half of the night and a few favors called in, but I’ve managed to track down my cousin and the other two people involved with you guys.”

“Wait, Josh is your _cousin_?”

Markus smiles a toothy grin when that catches Simon’s attention.

“I know, right? What were the fucking chances?” his own amusement doesn’t seem to reach the human, who is probably still too busy reeling with memories to appreciate it, so Markus just sighs and clears his voice a bit. “Look, do you want me to open a shadow door for them to come to you or not—”

“Yes, please.” Surprisingly, North is the one who agrees first. With a quite desperate tone, at that.

“Good, then. Get ready for—” before the shadow man can even finish his sentence, a dark blue portal opens in the middle of Connor’s kitchen.

Connor himself is rather nonplussed about it, considering he had time to adjust, but his friends all jump again despite the anticipation.

Lucy is as beautiful as North remembers her, light blue skin shimmering with unshed water and tentacles looking like giant dreadlocks behind her head; and her smile as she walks through the portal freezes North in place. The silk dress she’s wearing would put any luxury design brand to shame.

Markus crosses his arms. “Can I go five minutes without being interrupted?”

“You were taking a long time, Markus.” Even her voice sounds the same. “We’ve been missing our friends, too.”

“Also the gateway is way too small.”

Kara audibly gasps upon seeing Luther. Aside from the fact that he has to slouch not to bash his head against Connor’s ceiling, he’s every bit the gentle giant she remembered and loved. He’s even still wearing the marble pendant she made for him when they were kids, multicolored and shiny against his dark, gold-accented clothes.

“Luther!!!” she all but runs to him and jumps, trusting that he will readily throw his arms around her and pick her up.

“Well, there goes my chance at a dramatic entrance.” Last but definitely not least, Josh steps through the portal and around the embracing duo.

Golden eyes? Check.

V-shaped scar on the side of his shoulder? Check.

Leopard-like marks all over his back, sides, arms and tail? Check.

A body that would put any GQ or Men’s Health magazine cover to shame? _Oh boy_ , check.

Simon has to swallow empty air to get his voice under control. “Just… don’t expect me to jump in your arms, okay?”

“Shame, this time I would have actually been strong enough to catch you.” Josh laughs heartily, and just like that, the tension breaks, and everyone’s shoulders relax a little bit.

Saturday morning breakfast promptly turns into a not-so-imaginary friend reunion; and Markus finds himself almost acting like a chaperone of sorts, making sure nobody freaks out too much. He’s also low-key watching out for Lucy, though she probably doesn’t need it— it would be poor form to let anything happen to someone as important as she is.

Josh is in the middle of explaining their world to Simon and the others, and probably doing a much better job than he ever could. He’s a researcher, after all… the only people in the human world who would come even close to matching his intellect would probably be the ones working at NASA, or big-wig historians, maybe.

“Thing is, our worlds aren’t really separate identities. They exist in a state of quantum entanglement.” Oh gosh, busting out the Q-word. Markus sincerely hopes he can keep it simple. “Anything that happens in this world has repercussions on the shadow-realm and vice versa. When this world was ravaged by war and misery, so was ours. When real, horrible _monsters_ commit atrocities in our world, it generates a change in the human one.”

“More than that, we’re more closely connected than the average human might think.” Lucy clarifies, smiling knowingly to herself as her tentacles flick idly side to side, “Many of us possess disguising capabilities, and human eyes are quite easily fooled. A lot of people who walk the Earth as humans are not what they seem.”

“Really?” North asks, curious about all the possibilities. “Like who?”

Lucy seems to ponder for a moment. “Do you remember the florist that had the shop not far from your mother’s house?”

“You mean Jerry? I thought he was just Irish!”

Most of the others burst out laughing at that.

“For fuck’s sake, North!” Simon gasps out between chortles, leaning on Josh for support. Kara is trying hard not to giggle and Lucy just smiles behind her hand, impeccable countenance not broken by North’s honestly adorable faux-pas.

“What? He was a little weird, but a nice dude overall.”

“That is par for the course for most of us.” Luther tells them from his position on the floor, not really bothering to move too much since Kara is sitting in his lap again for the first time in many years, and all is well with the world again. He missed her so much; it’s unreal to be able to hold her again.

As Luther absentmindedly rests his chin on Kara’s head, Connor takes notice of their closeness:

“You two look cozy.”

It’s Kara’s turn to have a knowing smile. “That’s because Luther was my very first love.”

Silence falls into the room once again. Markus feels his eyebrows shoot so far up it nearly makes him open his second set of eyes. “You are one _brave_ young woman, Kara.”

More laughter ensues, much to Luther’s mild embarrassment: “Hey. We never got that far.”

“Yet.” She points out with a smirk.

“Well, shit. It _is_ always the quiet ones!” Simon comments, “How did we not know this about you?”

She shrugs and settles herself more into her beloved giant’s arms. “Not my fault you don’t pay attention.”

Connor nods mutely –he does remember the time in primary school where a kid tried to make fun of her for having an imaginary friend and Kara calmly telling him that he was just jealous because he had _no_ friends and that he could shove his stupid words up his butt along his stupid sand castles.

Actually, coming to think of it Kara has always been quite the savage –her calm and unassuming demeanor just throws people off. He wonders how much of that were Luther’s teachings… then he wonders how much of North learning to control her disproportionately short temper is to be credited to Lucy, how much of Simon finally developing confidence in himself and his ideas was thanks to Josh…

…how much of himself growing up strong-willed, unafraid and aspiring to help others was thanks to Markus’ influence.

Markus might have had the right idea when the words ‘guardian angel’ left his mouth.

None of them had to stick in this flawed, physical, uncomfortable world and indulge the fears and doubts of tiny, whiny, insecure humans, but they did. Connor wonders how many other people in this world have ever been so lucky.

The conversation shifts gears while he wasn’t paying attention, but he can’t find it in himself to care as he watches his friends smile, _really_ smile, for the first time in years, laughter genuine and unrestrained like few other times it has ever been. This is what was missing, this is the _real_ them, all together.

As they catch up some more, they learn that as a giant with a genetic predisposition to control fire, Luther is the equivalent of a firefighter in the shadow-realm, just working _with_ the fire rather than against it, however paradoxical that sounds. Josh tells them about his research career and how he gives lectures on the complex subject of the mix between science and magic that connects their dimensions, while Lucy… Lucy stays silent for a while before giving a rather short answer to the same ‘so what have you been doing’ question:

“I am a Spirit Medium and Afterlife Guide.”

“Say what?”

Lucy looks down at her hands briefly. “I identify recently departed souls who are unable to pass on, and guide them through one of the Afterlife doors.”

By Connor’s side, Markus leans in to whisper: “Told you North has friends in high places.”

That catches the other’s attention. Simon, ever so fond of asking questions, voices what everyone is asking.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… picture the highest ranked FBI or CIA officer ever, or just the highest-ranking officer in any secret services ever, barring heads of State themselves.” He tries, pausing for a moment to make sure everyone has a mental image. “Got that? Yeah. Each and every one of them could be Lucy’s bitch. At the most.”

North lets out a low whistle. “Is that true?”

“Yes.” Lucy confirms, nodding even as she leans over to lightly smack Markus on one shoulder. “This _knucklehead_ already said too much, but yes… the reason why what very little I said about my work sounds generic and pedestrian is because that’s the only thing I can say about it that isn’t classified.”

“Jeez, if guiding _souls_ to the afterlife sounds _pedestrian_ to you I’d be scared to know what you consider exciting!” Kara is not wrong. Markus himself doesn’t know the full extent of it, but he knows Lucy has seen some shit.

It’s probably a reflection for another time, he can feel his energy depleting and he’s been awake for a long time now. He really needs to get some rest.

“Okay, so… this has been delightful, but I may or may not be running on fumes and really need to go home and get some real rest…”

“Markus—”

“I know!” he doesn’t let Connor finish his protest, “I swear to you, it’s a one-off thing, I was just really excited to call the others and I have to sleep this off.” He motions towards his injury, before standing up to his full height and smiling at his friend. “I’ll be back by sundown.”

“We should probably get going as well.” Lucy says, standing up herself, “If I go now, I can have disguises ready for the four of us by tonight.”

“Um… do you guys have phone numbers or something?”

It might have sounded dumb to someone who knows better, but in Connor’s humble opinion Simon is asking all the important questions.

“Not exactly.” She answers, “We have devices for remote communications, but the mechanics of them aren’t exactly the same. I’ll try and come up with a suitable halfway.”

“In the meantime, we could all come back here tonight, if that’s okay with Connor?”

Being addressed directly, Connor meets Josh’s golden gaze and nods. “Yeah, man, I don’t mind! I haven’t had guests in forever; it’ll be just like a sleepover!”

Gosh, that just brings _more_ childhood memories. Markus needs to leave before he gets openly emotional.

 

It still takes about ten minutes between hugs and exclamations of how much everyone missed each other, but eventually the shadow-man finds himself safe and sound, on his way home.

A rustle to his left makes him snap in the direction of the sound, his extra eyes opening in reflex and shining mismatched light on the stranger.

“Nervous?”

Amethyst blinks from the left and yellow from the right soon after, as Markus lets out an exasperated sigh.

“What do you want, Elijah?”

The other shadow-man shrugs his shoulder, trying –and failing– to look like the picture of innocence. “Nothing, nothing…” there’s an almost sing-song tone to his voice that makes Markus want to punch him. “Visiting the human world, were we?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

“Fair.” Elijah concedes, but he still doesn’t go away, which is what Markus wishes he’d do already. “But you do remember your father’s opinion of the human world, don’t you?”

God, not this same old song. Markus briefly closes all four of his eyes to run a tired hand over them. “My father’s distaste is for human greediness and intolerance as concepts; they’re not extended to every single human that exists. He knows of Connor. He _likes_ him, even.”

Elijah falls into step with him and tries to throw an arm around Markus’ shoulders, which he sidesteps without bothering to be discreet about it.

“Ah, but can we ever really know someone? Especially after years apart?” the other shadow-man muses, tail swishing back and forth in what would be a playful motion from anybody else, “How can you know your precious human boy isn’t planning to sell your secrets to the highest bidder right now?”

 _That_ stops Markus in his track with a growl.

“Am I going to have to pull rank on you over this, Elijah?” he says, voice leaving him in a roar through the dark streets, maybe turning a few heads, but he doesn’t care. “Because _so help me,_ I will. Not _one_ hair on Connor’s head. He is my friend, and unlike some humans or some likewise disreputable creatures that I will not name, present company included, I _do not_ screw over my friends.”

Elijah is still looking at him with a shit-eating grin, but he does raise his hands in surrender. “Defensive, much?”

“I mean it, Elijah. Connor’s safety is now _your_ safety as well.” Markus doesn’t bother denying the barb, preferring to get his point solidly across: “Anything even remotely unpleasant happens to him, your pasty grey ass is _toast_.”

“Ooh, I like it when you talk dirty.”

“Get the hell out of my face. That’s an _order_.” Markus has to take a few breaths to calm himself down as he watches the other walk away. Elijah is quite easy to make out in the darkness –while Markus’ markings are barely distinguishable from the rest of him, Elijah’s stand out quite a lot against his light grey skin. He looks kind of like a white tiger, and he has the grace and stealth of one. It’s too bad he’s kind of an asshole.

He seems to enjoy sneaking up on Markus from time to time just to engage in the trading of snarky barbs until Markus gets fed up with him. It’s been going on ever since they slept together that _one_ time.

Biggest mistake of his life, honestly. Leo had been right to tease him about it for weeks.

Speaking of Leo, he hopes his brother is home. They’ve both been so busy lately; they’ve barely seen each other.

He doesn’t get his answer until he flops face-first on his bed with a huff. A knock at his door rouses him from his near-sleep and he grunts out an invite: “’S not locked!”

“I take it patrol didn’t _exactly_ go as planned?”

Understatement.

Still, Markus makes at least an attempt to save face. “It’s barely even a scrape. I just took a small detour to see a friend.”

Leo, being the amazing, caring brother he is, lets him: he just hums in dismissal, knowing all too well who the ‘friend’ Markus went to see is, and goes to sit by his side on the edge of the mattress.

“Alright, let’s see the damage.” Markus attempts to look defiant, but Leo has this way of looking at you with all of his eyes at once… it’s pretty disarming, even though four out of five of them are all the same baby blue. It must be the practiced ‘doctor’ look, no one wants to fuck with the guy who knows how to _needle_ people together _and_ take them apart. “Come on, I know you made a mess.”

Markus rolls over with a huff, and Leo chuckles as he briefly gets up to go get the first aid kit and come back.

He opens his fifth eye fully, warm honey right in the middle of his forehead contrasting sharply with the baby blues around it, and carefully peels away the band-aid from Markus’ side. Just as he suspected, his brother slapped it on the wound and called it a day.

He seems to have made the effort to disinfect it, at the very least… but he didn’t have the foresight to let it dry up before covering it. Which made the cotton stick to the tissues and the scab has peeled away along with the band-aid because of it, exposing the fresh wound again.

To his credit, Markus keeps the whining to a minimum, letting out a single, barely there groan.

“You know, for what it’s worth, you’re getting better!” Leo offers in encouragement, “At least you _remembered_ the disinfectant! Next stop: actually not getting hurt, for a change?”

Markus smiles— he knows all too well that’s just Leo’s way of worrying about him so he just tries to relax while his brother works his literal magic. “It’s not like I do it on purpose.”

“Of course not.” Finally done, Leo closes his fifth eye and pats Markus gently on the chest, “But you’re way too selfless, even in a fight.”

They stare each other down for a few moments, having the kind of silent conversation only brothers can have; until Leo eventually caves first.

“Never change, brother.”

It makes laughter return in Markus’ voice: “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Leo swings a playful punch, he blocks it, and they laugh together some more.

“Well, I’ll go get some sleep. It’s way too late in the afternoon to be looking after _your_ ass.”

“ _Lies_ , you love me!” Markus yells at his brother’s retreating back, but Leo is out before he can think of something even mushier to say.

He is finally left alone, thinking over what happened last night.

Getting caught in a moment of panic, thinking of Connor as his safe space, hearing his voice… then seeing him again, learning about the others, gathering the crew together.

Markus literally disclosed the existence of the shadow-realm to _four_ humans, on Connor’s word alone.

This either makes them _very_ good friends, or him _incredibly_ stupid. His father is not going to be happy about this, not one bit, but at least Lucy’s in on it, she can make sure everyone involved is safe and upholds secrecy.

And that _has_ to count for something, right?

Markus is not too sure. As far as spur of the moment decisions go, this was probably a monumentally idiotic one. Human world and Shadow realm exist in equal balance. For each of the seven billion and more humans populating the Earth and each of their cities and nations, there’s just as many creatures; populating the same cities and nations over to this side of the veil. Humans definitely aren't alone in the universe, nor are they as special as they think themselves to be.

Still, they cling a lot to that ‘top of the food chain’ thing, and most of them wouldn’t welcome such a world-shattering revelation as well as Connor and his friends did.

But then Markus thinks about the way Luther was holding Kara. The pride in her voice when she said he was her first love, and how that love was rekindled after years apart just like that, upon seeing each other again.

He refuses to think there could be anything wrong about that, and he’s pretty sure father would agree with him.

After all, Carl is the one who taught him not to let other people’s preconceptions decide who he is and what he can be. Those were easier times— his biggest worries were to treasure his father’s words while thinking when he’d be able to go out for playtime next.

The very last remnants of the wound on his side throb, reminding Markus of how drained he feels and how badly he needs to rest, no matter how much his brain is refusing to turn off.

He eventually falls asleep thinking of Connor, from their reunion to the best memories of their past together: he dreams of secrets shared, of dented furniture subjected to the strangest antic to the sounds of childish giggles in the dead of night; of high school insecurities and goodnight wishes that started feeling more and more like goodbyes…

Then his dreams shift, Connor is older, he gets the barest hint of stubble in the morning if he doesn’t shave, he sleeps bare-chested and curses out loud when startled. His skin is cool to Markus’ touch, and soft, so very soft… his fingernails would most likely leave bright red marks all over it, possibly draw blood if he’s not careful— not that he’d hurt Connor, he would never do such a thing.

But if Connor were to _ask_ … he never was able to deny his _best friend_ anything. Just like it would only take him one well-placed tilt of the head to get Connor to agree to _anything_.

The dream gets deeper and darker –he now sees Connor freshly out of his shower, walking naked towards him without a care. It takes a sharp turn from what happened early in the morning, and Markus will probably feel guilty for fantasizing about his friend like that, but he lets himself go in sleep, relishing in the haze of said fantasy until nothing matters except for Connor’s breath mixing with his own and calling his name.

He’ll definitely wear a shirt to go back out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TL;DR: people were overly butthurt about all the monsters being canonically black characters (I didn't know Carl is supposedly either black or irrelevant, cool beans!)  
> Now have some white monsters and shut the fuck up.


	4. Out and About

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Will you come back tomorrow?”
> 
> “I will _always_ come back for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY, chapter four!!!!  
> As promise, within tuesday morning.
> 
> A day early, even! Well, three quarters of a day early, but that's just because I collapsed yesterday evening after the all-nighter on the day before.  
> ....I'm a terrible example.
> 
> Either way! Magic! Science With Josh! Obscure plot points!  
> So many nice things to do! ♥
> 
> Open question: do we want some shenanigans with the gang in shadow world? right now most of the things that happen are in the human world, but there _is_ a point to what Elijah said to Markus last chapter, even if Markus outranks him (by _far_ ), and there's so many things I want to do but some of them I can't quite decide!!!  
> Whoever wants to help or wants to see something specific, feel free to hit the comments! ♥ ♥ ♥

Kara finishes work with a smile on her face, happily wishing a good night even to the old hag at reception who hates her for no reason, and she’s still in a stellar mood takes the train towards Connor’s house.

Luther is real.

The person she imagined for herself when she was lonely and insecure and dreamed about kissing actually exists. And he actually loves her –never stopped loving her just the way she is, contrary to all the people who tried to change her or give her ‘advice’ on how to live her life.

Simon is already there and taking off his jacket when she reaches Connor’s apartment, and North seems to not have left at all.

They’re in Connor’s living room, with a bunch of books splayed out on the coffee table.

“You two have been busy, I see…”

North puts down the Code she was reading and stretches her back. “Well, it’s not like I would have gone anywhere after we got a visit from fucking Narnia. Might as well get the books out and do some revising for the big certification, right?”

It’s a pretty solid reasoning.

“So…” Simon feels kind of awkward just standing around in silence, and he looks to Connor for an answer: “Are we waiting for anything in particular to happen, or…?”

“Markus said sundown. He should be here any minute now.” With beautiful comedic timing, a loud thump comes from his bedroom, followed by a groan and a muttered curse.

“ _Fuck_ , I really need to move this doorway…”

Connor can’t help but laugh under his breath.

As the other peer towards his open bedroom door to understand what the hell happened, Markus crawls none too gracefully out from under his bed, dusting himself off.

“Oh, that is _adorable_.” Simon connects the dots, having probably been in a similar situation: “He was the monster under your bed all along?”

Markus shrinks self-consciously under everyone’s gaze –he’s clearly still not used to being seen by so many humans; and Connor clears his voice: “Fun fact… ‘monster’ is a humanized term. They call themselves simply ‘creatures’.”

North raises an eyebrow at that. “That’s forgettably generic.”

“It’s meant to be.” Markus explains, stepping into the living room with a little more confidence. “There are so many different types of creatures all over the world, it’s never really been feasible to try and encompass all of us into one definition.”

“Hm. That’s smart.” Simon muses with interest.

“Also, nobody really gives a shit on our side of the Veil. People born in the same city –or even in the same family– can look so different, it would be idiotic to even try labeling them.”

It’s probably not the most discreet way to put it, but the sooner they can move away from the topic the better. Markus has purposefully left the shadow-door open, so Lucy will detect her and open a portal in three, two, one…

“Hey guys, what’s up?” This time, Josh is the first one to step out –luckily for Simon’s heart, he’s wearing proper clothes… for the most part. A shirt is definitely covering his chest, and he’s wearing long trousers for a change. Not that it makes him any less gorgeous, but at least the blonde can look at him and still be breathing.

“An obvious answer would be ‘the ceiling’.”

“Oh, _ha_ _ha_ , big guy. I’m laughing.”

Due to his peculiar eye-condition, it’s impossible to tell whether Luther is being serious or if he’s just messing with Josh. It’s one of the things Kara loves the most about him: everybody thinks he’s so stern and serious, but she _knows_ he’s actually a giant goofball.

“Hey, there.” She greets, walking by his side much more calmly than earlier this morning but still holding out her arms for Luther to pick her up so she can kiss him on the cheek.

Lastly, Lucy steps out and closes the portal behind her with a flick of her wrist.

“How do you guys even _do_ this stuff?” North asks— she’s not the little girl who took cool things at face value anymore, and obviously has questions.

Connor gestures to the guests to get comfortable and spread out between the sofa and armchairs, even though Luther prefers to sit cross-legged on the floor with Kara on his lap rather than taking his chances on the definitely not giant-friendly furniture.

To answer North’s question, Josh gently taps her on the shoulder to get her attention. “It’s a matter of cerebral capacity, mostly. The Veil between our realities is almost literally like a breathy fabric. Thinner than what the time-space continuum is made of, and as such easier and safer to mess around with.” He explains joining his hands in front of himself and moving them so his fingers are perpendicular to each other. “If you know what parts of a fabric to pull and have the right needle, you can push the fibers apart enough to create a hole without breaking it. The beaded bracelet on Lucy’s wrists is a direct hyperlink to a program that makes the calculations for her constantly, so she only has to reach out to the matter to bend it.”

“Wait, so is what you guys do science?” she then asks, “Or is it magic?”

The knowing smile on Lucy’s lips pretty much says it all when her only answer is: “Yes.”

Luther is also trying very hard not to chuckle –as the man whose eyes are literally made of blazing fire, he is the perfect example of the coexistence of both.

“Speaking of that…” Lucy carries on, reaching into the pockets of her dress –it has _pockets_ , and even of the useful kind– to get out a bunch of diamond [prism-shaped](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/36f235_ebc880f4310d4f9888b5f7d1129dcfe8~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_498,h_331,q_90/file.webp) pendants. “I come bearing gifts.” She distributes one to each of her friends, then turns to face the humans. “I trust all of your cellphones have bluetooth connection, yes? Open it up and search for devices close by. I named them after each of us, so it shouldn’t be too hard to identify them.”

Sure enough, four devices appear in the list of available connections to make, and all of them connect to all four, just in case. The shared connection downloads some files on their smartphones, including but not limited to a new contact from each device and access information to a wifi network.

It’s all very Star Trek-esque, the nerdier side of Connor is as excited as he’d be as a little boy, but Kara precedes him in testing it out:

“Ok, let’s see if it works…” she selects the contact and lets the call ring… sure enough, the crystal Luther’s wearing lights up in intermittent flickers.

Luther takes a hold of the prism and brings it to his lips. “Yes?”

Kara is more than a little surprised to hear his voice also coming from her smartphone receiver. “Oh wow, it works!”

With her own voice coming up from the crystal as well, that’s pretty much solid confirmation. Luther lets go of the crystal and the light dies out.

“That is… amazing! How does it work?” Simon, being possibly a bigger geek than Connor, is absolutely fascinated and turns to Josh to try and get a closer look at his pendant.

“Living bodies are natural conductors. The gold or rose gold in the pendants also facilitates transmission.” Lucy explains, hands going around her own pendant, “Touching it applying enough pressure opens the device to a call, emanating a type of waves that your phones _can_ interact with…”

Connor snaps his fingers at that, remembering something that happened not too long ago: “Like computer speakers picking up radio frequencies! Simon, remember that time your sound system broke and kept picking up radio broadcasts?”

The blonde will never forget –he was tired after a near all-nighter spent studying for one of his master classes; and he was just passing by his living room to get into the kitchen and get some breakfast, when voices out of thin air made him just about jump out of his skin. As he tried to look for the source of the sound, he ended up pressing his ear against one of the speakers. It was very faint, but he could hear clearly voices coming out of them even though they were turned off… and it was a weather broadcast.

Weirdest morning of his life… well, up until today.

Josh confirms Connor’s words: “Precisely. Our dimensions have some core differences in evolution and lifestyle, but the laws of physics governing them are largely the same. The reason some of the things we do look like magic to human eyes is because of brain use percentage… though not the kind pop-culture means.”

“So the 10% thing is a [myth](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321060.php)?” North asks, thinking back to some of her favorite movies.

“There have been studies in this world disproving that as well.” Josh tells her, “If you do any kind of scan or imaging of a living person’s brain in a hospital, you’ll almost always see most if not all of the brain is active. However, there is a difference between the physical brain and its mental capacity. The percentage of use of that varies from person to person, depending on what they’re doing or thinking about. A large portion of the brain is also active while a person sleeps.”

Markus lets out a chuckle at that: “Welcome to _Science with Josh_! Today we explore the differences between being asleep and being in a coma!”

“Hey, shut up it’s interesting and they want to know!” his cousin protests, making him chuckle even more.

“I know Josh, and I agree, but are you really gonna teach him _everything_ about our world in the first meeting?” Markus argues, scratching absently at the side of his forehead where one of his extra eyes would be if he opened them. “That’s _a lot_ of information at once, you’re gonna confuse the hell out of them. No offense, guys.”

Kara, precious as she always is, speaks up to that: “None taken, I’m sure we will have time to pester you all with annoying questions.” She looks up at Luther then, “I surely have _a lot_ of them.”

No one seems to really get it except North. “Kara you’re a goddamn legend.”

Markus gets it belatedly and it makes him think of things he probably shouldn’t think about. He coughs loudly and reroutes the conversation. “Either way… don’t undersell the magic, Josh. I don’t understand the _entirety_ of the Veil’s inner workings, I just know that if I focus enough I can do this—” he knocks his fist twice against the wall closest to him, and a black swirl starts forming against it, widening until a person could easily go through it, “—and the shadow-door opens.”

Connor clicks his tongue and shakes his head at his long-time friend: “Show-off.”

That makes everyone laugh, especially Josh, because he knows his cousin and he knows it’s true.

“There’s another function to the crystals.” Lucy announces once everyone’s settled down. She makes a show of grabbing her own crystal, placing her thumb and index finger at the base of it and twist the lower part of the pendant until it realigns with the top after a 90° turn. As she does this, a thin layer of sparks covers her entire form, but when it dissipates a ‘normal’ looking girl is standing before them. She has slightly tan skin, wide black eyes, and big, chunky dreadlocks where the tentacles would have been. “Twist the base once, the pieces inside the crystals align and the circuit closes, turning on the disguise. Twist it again, and…” she twists the device again and returns to her usual looks.

“That’s insane!”

“No wonder we would have no freaking clue…”

“How did you do that?”

“Where does the look come from?”

It was predictable that the humans would have an excited reaction and start asking question all at a time, but she placates them with a gesture of her hand. “The way we look when disguised is just an approximation how we’d look if we had been born on this side of the Veil, it’s not an exactly conscious choice, but… it’s not entirely accidental either.”

She’s clearly struggling for words, likely because a full explanation would go beyond what she’s at liberty to discuss with other creatures, much less a bunch of humans. Sensing a bit of her unease, North claps her hands and turns to the others. “Whatever it is, it’s awesome.” She comments with finality in her voice, “Come on, gents, give it a try, let’s see those pretty faces!”

Luther doesn’t look all that different. He’s still much taller than anyone else Kara has ever seen, but somehow less imposing. He could pass just for a very, very tall guy. He’s got gentle hazel eyes in his disguise, but even though his smile is as sweet as ever, Kara finds herself missing the bright fire in them.

Still. It’s for his own safety, and not that much of a big deal.

“Oh God, this is so weird!” Simon comments, once he sees Josh look just like a regular dude. They’ve all been so used to their imaginary friends looking the way they do, that seeing them look just like anybody else would is disconcerting.

Markus is the one who hesitates the most about it.

“Ok… moment of truth.” He twists the device, and Connor sees him change before his eyes.

He’s still the same height and built, but gone are the horns and the tail, gone are the skin markings in favor of regular old freckles… the only part of the _real_ Markus that stayed the same is the mismatched blue and green eyes.

And, well, the piercings that Connor still can make out the shape of, underneath the shirt. Taking a good look at Markus, he chuckles, making the other frown slightly.

“What? Is it that bad?”

“Not at all, it’s just…” Connor tries, really hard, to find a better way of saying this, but to no avail: “You look like you’re going to a Depeche Mode concert.”

Most of them are pretty inconspicuous with their disguise on: Lucy’s [dress](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c3/83/2f/c3832fdab51b44d5f760276cbf518009.jpg) is unusual, but women’s fashion is much broader in terms of style. Josh’s fingerless gloves might be a bit weird but overall he’s just another guy in a [tank top](http://www.darkincloset.com/2635-14437-large/punk-rave-grey-steampunk-gloves-for-men.jpg) and jeans; and even Luther’s thin, long-sleeved [shirt](https://i.etsystatic.com/12852724/r/il/e70f56/1771388307/il_794xN.1771388307_siwx.jpg) is not really out of the ordinary. It didn’t look out of place when Markus was a tiger-colored creature with a tail and glowing eyes, but the deep-V with crisscrossing lace is now more than a little [distracting](http://www.darkincloset.com/1922-9621-large/punk-rave-steampunk-asymmetric-neck-t-shirt-for-men.jpg).

People _would_ stare, for several different reasons.

Markus just looks down at himself, as if trying to puzzle what’s wrong with his clothes, while Josh just doubles over with laughter.

“Thank you, Connor!” he exclaims in-between guffaws, “I don’t know you that well but I can already tell we’re gonna get along. I’ve been on his case about the stupid shit he wears for _years_!”

“Hey! I look _amazing_ , thank you very much!”

“Of course you do—” Connor placates, before he can think about what he’s saying, “Yes, you’re very handsome and everybody knows it, but the whole point of this is _not_ to attract attention.” Markus is about to protest more, so Connor just grabs him by the shoulders and turns him into the direction of his bedroom. “You can wear one of my shirts instead. Please?”

“Fine.” Rolling his eyes, Markus yanks his top over his head as he walks towards Connor’s room.

Connor’s eyes follow him until he’s out of sight.

“Wait, you _actually_ think he’s handsome?” Josh’s question takes him back to the here and now, “Like, in his usual form?”

“Um… yes? I’m not an authority on the subject, but I think all of you guys are pretty damn good-looking.”

“Seconded!” Kara adds, pointedly leaning her head against Luther’s shoulder.

“Huh.” Come to think of it, Simon did show him a lot of his D&D books and fantasy movies. This put things in a very different light— his blond friend is not looking at him, but he’s got that hint of red over his cheek that he’d get whenever something would make him feel shy.

Clearly, Josh was wrong about humans finding them hideous just because of looking very different.

That’s _very_ good to know.

Markus returns a moment later, with a t-shirt sporting the logo of Connor’s favorite metal band on the front and with the sleeves rolled up. “Better?”

“Progress.” Connor concedes. “At least it’s an entire shirt, just for starters. You do know the whole point of disguising is to _not_ have people stare at you, right?”

He’s actually thankful that his sarcasm helps him hide how strange this whole thing makes him feel. The disguise takes away a lot of what makes Markus… well, Markus, but the shadow-man is still undeniably gorgeous, and it’s gonna obvious no matter how much he covers up.

Markus rolls his shoulders a bit, as if uncomfortable with wearing such a constricting garment –it’s just a freaking t-shirt, for _heaven’s sake_ – but ultimately nods with a grunt of sorts. “Sure. Now that we’re all presentable and audience-appropriate… what crazy adventures do we wanna have?”

“I was thinking we could all just go get some dinner and hang out.” North proposes, “There’s an arcade not too far from here.”

Lucy chuckles. “Riveting.” She says, voice a perfect deadpan but a smile still on her face.

“Hey, you’re the one who taught me to use games as an outlet for my temper.”

“I did. And I’m very proud of you.”

Normally, North would bash someone over the head for being condescending at her, but it’s different when Lucy does it. “Am I still being made fun of?”

“Only a little.” Her friend assures, holding out a hand for her to take. “Come now, none of us have ever been out and about on this side of the Veil, and I’m sure the boys are very excited to go out.”

While the disguise is on, all five senses are fooled, apparently. Lucy’s skin feels just like a human’s when North takes her hand, and it really feels like she has five fingers instead of four, with no trace of the membrane connecting them together.

It’s admittedly fascinating, though she wishes they wouldn’t have to take such measures just to enjoy walking out and having fun.

They all head out nonetheless, Luther and Kara holding hands at the front, North, Josh, Lucy and Simon following closely behind, and Markus and Connor bringing up the rear as Connor locks up.

“You know, I wonder…” he says, once they’re good to go and catch up to the others, “Would _we_ have to wear a disguise to visit your world?”

Markus thinks the question over for a minute. “In the past, maybe. The Veil used to be stronger, not as easily pierced as it is now. World War II caused… a lot of mayhem, not just on this side.” He goes pensive for a moment, trying to find the right way to explain it –clearly, Josh has a bigger expertise than him on teaching about the Veil and how it works. “As such, in the last 40 to 50 years the general public’s awareness of the other side of the Veil increased, and people are not as afraid anymore. You’d probably get a bunch of weird looks, but you’d be fine as long as I’m with you.”

Not really thinking, Connor takes a hold his hand like he would back when they were kids stumbling around his room in the dark to play. He smiles. “Lucky me.”

 

They do end up going for dinner and games— the diner connected to the arcade does have a vegetarian option for Lucy, and Markus assures them plenty of times that human food will not hurt them at all, their bodies are more compatible than they look at first sight.

Which of course prompts a whole array of dirty jokes, but it does make Connor think: a lot of ancient folklore is about mythical creatures falling for and mating with humans… if legends really do have a grain of truth in them, that might be it.

Fortunately, he doesn’t stay on that train of thought for long, because North and Kara challenge Josh and Simon at DDR, and seeing as the girls are currently the high score holders to that machine, it promises to be a metaphorical bloodbath.

Simon and Josh put up a valiant fight, but North and Kara are the synchronized swimmers of DDR and come out on top two rounds out of three.

Markus challenges Connor to what he knows is his favorite motorcycle game and, considering it’s his first time playing one, Connor is quite impressed with how well he can keep up. Markus still loses, but there were a few rather close-calls.

Luther refuses to try the obligatory _Test your Strength_ hammer game, because he doesn’t want to break it and have to pay for it, and instead he takes Kara to the air-hockey table –to which he proceeds to lose gracefully at before Kara throws the puck at him to make him stop holding back.

For a long while, Lucy seems fine just watching them play— she’s never been too big on games, other than recognizing them as a good outlet to cheer up North whenever she was sad… but then North pleads and coaxes her to try a co-op first person shooter. Funnily enough, it’s about alien invasions and many things about the opening cutscene are _wildly_ inaccurate, but Lucy manages to let go of her unyieldingly rational side and just enjoy playing with North, just like when they were little girls.

And _damn_ , she is as good at virtual shooting as she is normally. This is good hand-eye training, if nothing else.

There’s even a small crowd of ‘admirers’ gathered round to see the two _gamer chicks_ about to obliterate the high score of yet another machine.

Before she knows it, gone is her silent and reserved countenance, she is openly laughing, shouting instructions, pointing her finger and cheering whenever they get to the next level. They actually jump and high-five once they defeat the final boss, much to the clapping of their impromptu small audience.

“Alright, who needs to hydrate?” Markus asks at one point, already raising his own hand up, and immediately Lucy shot her and up discreetly, to the chant of _“Me! Me! Me!”_ and Josh also nodded in his direction. Turning to Connor, Markus offers a tentative smile. “Walk me to the bar?”

“Um, sure.”

On the way to get drinks for everyone, Markus explains to Connor that Lucy is largely an aquatic creature: she can survive just fine on dry land, but it can get pretty uncomfortable and it’s bad for her skin to be too dehydrated. Josh and himself are just easily overheated –Luther is the only one out of them who doesn’t have this kind of problem, though the big guy doesn’t do too well in cold environments.

They were still chatting amiably while waiting for their drinks to come, when a familiar, annoying voice breaks Connor’s sentence half-way.

“Connor! Connor Anderson, actually out and having fun?” the newcomer is shorter than Connor, with light colored eyes and a hint of stubble. “Was there a fire at your house or something?”

“Hello Gavin. What a shame, it was such a nice evening right until now.”

Gavin… the name sounds familiar to Markus. It takes him a few seconds, but he finally remembers: Connor’s ex, the one who went from trying to be a bully to trying to get his attention in just about every other way, just to end up in a relationship where the only way they could talk was screaming matches.

“You’d have to actually get outside more than once every blue moon to be able to tell the difference.” There seems to be some lingering animosity between them, but as long as it’s just exchanging barbs like that Markus doesn’t really care.

He does, however, make his presence known at Connor’s side. “Really? And yet I heard that outings on blue moon nights are beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”

Gavin blinks repeatedly at him, looking from his ex to Markus and then back.

“Right! Where are my manners?” Connor gestures with his arm, “Markus, this is Gavin Reed. We knew each other in high school. Gavin, this is Markus, a friend of mine.”

“Charmed.” Markus says in an unimpressed deadpan right before the bartender calls them over to collect their drinks. Connor shoots him an exasperated _‘be nice’_ look and goes to begin collecting them.

_‘Markus’_. Now where did Gavin hear that name before?

There’s a hand extended in his direction, and Gavin takes it, still pondering about the differently colored eyes, the posture and the name… so, so familiar. It comes back to him finally, and when it does, he yanks Markus slightly forward as they shake hands, taking him by surprise enough to lean close to his face and whisper:

“I _know_ what you are.”

 

It makes blood almost freeze in Markus’ veins. Not in fear— they’re in a very crowded place, no one in their right mind, human _or_ creature, would attempt to start shit in such an environment; but with uncertainty. Why would a human know what _he_ is? Is this Gavin person really just a human? If so, how much does he know and why? Is Connor in danger because of him?

He doesn’t particularly like any of the hypothetical answers to those questions.

But there’s _one_ thing he can say to this pale imitation of a schoolyard thug: “Then you know how unwise it would be to mess with me. Or the people I care about.”

Gavin’s mouth curls slightly in a sneer. “Is that a threat on our very first meeting?”

“It’s a _polite observation_.” Markus specifies, feeling his own gaze harden despite himself, “I don’t know what you _think_ you know, nor what made you feel the need to let me know with such distaste in your voice, but here’s something true about me: I just want to be left in peace with my friends.” He releases the grip he hadn’t noticed he tightened on the other’s hand and watches Gavin covertly cradle the hand to his chest. “You’d do well to be content with the same.”

The shadow-man doesn’t stay to watch for Gavin’s reaction and he doesn’t give the other any time to further the conversation. He just turns tail and goes back to Connor to help him carry the drinks over to their friends.

“So... your ex was _delightful_ , I can’t imagine why you two didn’t work out.”

Connor laughs in a way that has Markus nearly forgetting the incident already. “Yeah… he’s not really that bad of a guy, but he can sure make it very hard for anyone to put up with his shit.” He shoots a glance at where Gavin had been, but he’s no longer there, likely back to whatever table he was occupying with whoever was accompanying him. “Did he say anything to you?”

Markus ponders telling Connor right away. On the off-chance this is something dangerous, he withholds for now. It isn’t the time _or_ place to talk about this openly, anyway. “Not really. He’s just… exactly what I would have expected.”

“Yeah, I had horrible taste in guys back then.”

They have just reached the rest of the group and North takes one glass from one of the two trays they’d been given to carry their stuff over. “Oh are we having the bitchy ex-boyfriend talk? Because I could go on a long time about that!”

“We’re not, North.” Connor admonishes, passing drinks around to the others, “And we’ve had this talk before. You were right, we were not meant to work, and I learned my lesson.”

“Lord, that whole semester was a train wreck.” Kara adds sympathetically, “I am very much in favor of forgetting it ever existed.”

“Agreed.” Simon holds out his glass as if to solidify that resolution with a toast, and the girls enthusiastically clink it.

That minor hiccup over and done with, they all have a lovely time together, reminiscing about old games and finally connecting their stories together, and they end up going their separate ways at the end of the evening, which is probably more comfortable for everyone involved, not to mention safer: now that they have an easy means of calling each other, there’s no need to just have one meeting point… and Connor’s house is no longer a potential target for crazy obsessed weirdos who think they know shit about monsters.

When the two of them finally reach Connor’s place, the first thing Markus does is tug off the t-shirt as if it was a personal offence to him.

“Do you _ever_ manage to stay clothed for more than a few hours a day?” the human asks him, amusement clear in his voice.

Markus just drops the disguise and stretches, curling his tail up in the air after having had to keep it closely wrapped around himself for so long. “Are you implying something?”

“Well, you do fall out of your clothes a lot.” Connor comes around the corner to his bedroom door just to find Markus in the middle of putting that sorry excuse for a shirt back on.

Somehow, catching him half-undressed feels more intimate than just seeing him fully shirtless. The shadow-man doesn’t seem to register his moment of hesitation.

“I told you so many times already… I’m simply too _hot_ for the human world.”

Connor would be inclined to agree on any given day, but the way Markus winks at him makes him register the godawful pun.

“ _Oh_ , did you just—”

“I believe I just did.”

Despite himself, Connor laughs. “That was awful.”

“ _Your face_ is awful.”

“That was even worse!”

It’s incredible how time doesn’t erase long-lasting feelings. Connor’s friendship with Markus has always been unlike any other, they could shoot playful jabs at each other, cajole one another into the stupidest ideas, often mildly hazardous, and yet at the end of the day they always said goodnight with a hug and a promise to see each other again.

Which brings them to this moment.

It should be no different than all the other times Connor asked Markus to come back to see him, and yet it feels so. It’s stupid and he knows it, but Connor doesn’t want to speak first.

Funnily enough, he doesn’t need to: Markus takes both his hands and speaks up. “Hey. Promise to contact me if you ever feel in danger, or even if you just feel like talking to me?”

“If I ever feel in danger? I’m training to be in the police force, Markus, I’ll be in danger plenty of times.” Connor points out, much to the other’s frustration.

“You know what I mean. Monster-related danger.” The fact that Markus said specifically _monster_ , rather than creature, makes Connor think back to his friend’s very vague description about himself being a ‘policeman of sorts’. He will have to ask about that when they have the time.

Sobering up a little, he looks down at their joined hands and lets out a slow exhale. “I promise, Markus.” He whispers, unaware of how low his voice has dropped, “Will you come back tomorrow?”

Markus holds his hands tighter. “I will _always_ come back for you.”

Wow. That sounded… very different to Connor’s ears. They’re also standing awfully close for two friends who just had a nice, _friendly_ reunion, but that might just be wishful thinking on his part. Markus seems to ponder something, then decide against it, and suddenly Connor is enveloped in a familiar sort of hug.

“Goodnight, Connor.” He hears, whispered in the crook of his neck.

“Goodnight, Markus.”

Markus bows to him theatrically as they separate, he stomps a foot on the floorboards twice and lets himself be assimilated downwards in the shadow door that opens.

Connor is left staring at the open space the other had just been in, and shakes his head fondly.

“Show-off.” He mutters to himself, beginning to undress to get his pjs on and go to sleep.

That was definitely an evening to remember.

He goes to bed excited at the prospect of having more of them; and he dreams about the night he met the boy with the glowing eyes, hiding under his bed.

It’s not the first time he dreams about Markus, and it definitely won’t be the last.


	5. Busted, and shameless about it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “…But you’re not kids anymore.”
> 
> “Definitely not.” Connor sighs in defeat. “I’m not slick, aren’t I?”
> 
> Hank laughs fondly. “Not even a little.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this entire chapter and realized: It's 5k+ of words and nothing really happens.  
> It's just cute domestic monster shit.
> 
> BUT! Finally the worldbuilding is mostly over and done with, and when something finally does happen, I won't have to explain it too much.
> 
> I swear I'm going somewhere with this.  
> Just... given time.
> 
> pls love me.
> 
> (also, this is where the Thirsty Connor tag really comes in. I regret nothing.)

The following few days are possibly the most surreal of Connor’s life. His mornings would start just like any other day, but coming home from training he’d find Markus either already sitting on his bed, or poking his nose around in his books.

According to what he hears from Simon and the girls, they’re in a similar situation.

Tonight, Markus is laying face-down on his bed with a book in front of him.

“What are you reading?” Connor asks, dropping his things by his dresser and walking over to his friend.

Markus is shirtless, _again_. At least it's good exercise for not getting so fired up about it.

“Robert Frost.” He answers. “So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day…”

“Nothing gold can stay.” Connor finishes for him. It’s one of his favorites. The book’s pages are yellow, dog-eared and well loved. It’s very likely that Markus picked it for exactly that reason: he was always fond of poking his nose in what Connor could be up to.

Old habits clearly die hard. Connor sits on the edge of the bed.

“Do you ever sleep?”

Chuckling, Markus turns and sits up. “Of course I do. Usually between six a.m. and midday."

“Don’t you have things to do in your world?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

They both laugh at that. Markus knows all too well Connor just wants to _know_. He always was very curious.

“I just worry… I don’t want you to neglect your life for me.” The human clarifies, “Surely if you’re a creature of darkness you need the night hours…”

Markus shakes his head.

“Common misconception.” He assures, closing the book and resting it on his lap, “True, I’m stronger and faster at night, and all my senses are heightened, but contrary to this side of the veil, who only has a few precious hours of darkness, the Shadow Realm is… well, pretty shadowed. Think those far-off towns in Alaska that at some point in the year have a full-on month of darkness. It’s similar.”

“Fascinating.” It comes out in a whisper, and the air around them is very still. Connor knows he’s staring again, but he just can’t get enough of Markus’ eyes. Nevermind the otherworldly look that the crown of horns and the black markings over his temples give him, those eyes are just… hypnotizing.

When he asked Markus about it, he mentioned that they served to see properly in the dark and that he has two extra ones hidden in his forehead as well, for when he’s in real darkness; but Connor theorized that, in a far back past, the bioluminescence might also have been a feature to attract prey.

The shadow-man didn’t refute his theory, vaguely mentioning that while on this side of the veil the dominant species –humans– evolved from primate mammals like monkeys, shadow-people are most likely descended from big felines which, in a place that is nearly perpetually dark, definitely had the upper hand in the evolutionary ladder.

It would explain the markings and the tails, if nothing else.

“You still haven’t answered my question.” Connor eventually says, finding his motor functions and making them work, eventually, enough to tear his gaze away from the other’s eyes and get a slightly more respectable distance between their faces.

Busted, Markus knows his friend won’t let that go unless he gives at least a semblance of an answer.

“I’ll tell you, but it’s a bit confidential.” He caves, because when does he ever not? “Remember what I told you about creatures who take the full plunge, transforming into monsters and preying on other creatures and humans alike?”

Connor nods, urging him to go on.

“Well, I’m less ‘police force’ and more ‘department of defense’.” Markus confesses, a slightly awkward cough leaving his lips as he continues, “In the Shadow Realm, these creatures become criminals and fugitives, some of them completely lose any rational behavior, but they’re still intelligent, and as such they know they wouldn’t be able to escape for long…” He pauses for a moment, to find the right words that would provide a good explanation without getting him in too much trouble. “Because of that, many of these creatures hide in the human world, shedding their physical forms almost completely and preying on vulnerable souls.”

“Vulnerable?” Connor asks –he can kind of see where this is going but wants a confirmation to his hypothesis.

“Have you ever seen something on the news… odd, inexplicable murders… or strange death, someone who was ill and getting better who suddenly got worse for no reason?” It sounds straight out of a horror story, but Markus’ voice is dead serious: “That’s the work of rogue, feral creatures. We call them souleaters. They never really make themselves known, and never superimpose their will to their targets. They just lurk in the back of their targets’ darkest thoughts, always there, whispering to let go, to just give up, slowly leeching away at their sanity or their energy. And when the target eventually cracks, the souleater feeds on the negative energy that gets unleashed.”

It’s a bit different from what Connor thought, but no less distressing. “That sounds… awful.”

“It could be worse.” Markus muses, but he still nods, “At least their nature and modus operandi prevents them from getting organized on this side of the Veil. Crime fighting on our side is just about the same as here, but inter-dimensional crime? That’s where my division comes in.”

“Way to make yourself sound like an action hero.” Connor jokes, if only to lighten the tone, but other than chuckling and shaking his head, Markus doesn’t take the bait.

“We have a pretty solid natural defence against ‘invasions’: any human trying to pierce the Veil on their own would need funds and staff that would require a solid backing…” they’re not _that_ sure of it, but if any efforts are being made by any government to pierce the Veil, they’re being made with enough secrecy that it hasn’t reached them yet. “And luckily for us no one here with a lick of sense would listen to a lunatic going _‘hey, let’s spend billions of dollars to try and find magical shadow people’_ … unfortunately for both sides, coming through from our end is much easier.”

“So your job is not only to stop interdimensional criminals, but also to keep it under wraps?”

Markus leans forward to face Connor again, answering his question with another question: “Do you think humanity is ready to embrace the fact that an infinitely faceted Multiverse does exist, as well as several layers of reality?”

“…Probably not.” Knowing what he knows, he would definitely say no.

Detective training is almost finished and while witnessing several procedures, shadowing senior officers –his own father included– and reading reports, Connor also heard all kinds of stories.

People can be real… heh, monsters.

Tomato, tomato, as one would say.

The implications are heavy enough to distract him from the fact that Markus is basically an interdimensional secret agent. Which is kinda hot. Aaaand he’s not distracted anymore. _Shit._

“Either way, by walking on this side and taking a few hours every day to try and see if anything bad is going on, I’m still doing my job.” Markus continues –Connor has to avert his eyes when his friend gets up from the bed and stretches, because _seriously_ , that is torture. “Not everyone has clearance to make the jump on a whim, so…”

That makes sense. Still, Connor wonders how much going off to visit him Markus can pass off as multitasking. Then it hits him: “Shit, are the others in trouble?”

“No, not at all, I promise!” His friend hurries to say, “Lucy is in a league of her own and has no restrictions as far as I know, Josh works in a different branch to me but can also pretty much come and go like I do, and Luther is a special case.”

“What kind of special case?”

“You know those big, awful forest fires that threaten to turn into big-ass disasters and then they miraculously… don’t? That’s when Luther manages to answer the call in a timely manner.” Right, Josh did mention that large-scale disasters on one side also affect the other, so if Luther is an interdimensional firefighter, it only makes sense to give him travel clearance as needed.

Though, considering what Lucy said about plenty of shadow-people choosing to live in the human world, it’s likely that the bureaucracy involved is similar to applying for a passport or visa.

Idly, he wonders if any humans ever thought ‘fuck this world’ and applied for a Shadow Realm residence. He also muses that, as the ones with the higher awareness, the shadow-people could choose to completely close off and leave humans to shit themselves into oblivion, and yet they don’t –possibly the reason why kids would happen to shadow-jump to other kids: surely training exercises gone awry, and considering the widespread trend of imaginary friends and the like, there’s no safer bet for a child than another child’s room.

Connor is willing to bet that a supervisor or chaperone from the other side was keeping an eye out in case things went sour, at least on their very first few meetings. Which then prompts the moral question of whether it’s right to train children to jump dimensions at such a young age even if it’s for their own safety… but Connor doesn’t really want to think about that.

He wouldn’t have met Markus otherwise.

“So… should I disguise myself so we can go out, or do you want to just stay in?”

His friend’s voice startles Connor out of his thoughts, and he shakes his head. “Nah, let’s stay in.” he proposes, shrugging his shoulders, “How do pizza and cheesy horror movies sound?”

“Perfect relaxation after the hours I’ve just had.”

 

They’ve both dozed off on the living room couch, tangled up together just like they ended up when they were kids, when the sound of someone opening the front door with a key makes Connor jostle awake.

“Connor? You home, kiddo? I just got a message from— _Jesus Christ_!!!”

Still groggy from sleep, Connor doesn’t immediately realize the reality of the situation. “Really? What did he say?”

“Damn it, Connor I just—” to be completely fair, Hank hasn’t had a good look at Markus yet, either, so he’s just embarrassed like any dad who just caught their son snuggling on a sofa with a random shirtless person. “I tried texting you and got worried that you didn’t answer, if I had known you had company, I—”

But he cuts himself off again, because by the time Connor has climbed off the couch and his guest also stumbled awake, there’s a few things Hank’s _definitely_ noticing.

“What kind of kinky shit are you into?! What the fuck am I looking at?!”

“Oh, _shit._ ”

In hindsight, maybe Connor could have suggested to Markus to run to the bathroom, get back out in disguise and maybe convince Hank that it was just a costume, but he’s too out of it to formulate such a plan and honestly doesn’t want to lie to his father.

“Um, dad, do you remember Markus?”

It takes a few moments for Hank to actually grasp what his son is talking about.

“Markus?” he parrots, fumbling as he gets out his wallet to extract a piece of paper from it, “As in, _imaginary best friend_ Markus?”

“What’s that?” Connor asks in turn, watching his father unfold the piece of paper and hold it up against Markus’ face— he recognizes it instantly: it’s a crayon drawing he made in primary school, not long after meeting Markus.

He’s never been particularly good as an artist, but there’s stick figure Hank with the word ‘Dad’ proudly on top of his head, stick figure Connor with a simple ‘Me’ above him, and stick figure Markus, recognizable by the striped complexion, the tail, and the different colored eyes.

The writing above his head says ‘My best friend, the Monster’.

It honestly warms Connor’s heart that his father kept that drawing.

A lesser man would have probably questioned the situation further, asking if it was some sort of elaborate prank… but Hank is a police Lieutenant, and knows how to analyze clues. He caught the two of them sleeping in front of a movie, and the expletive ‘Markus’ let out at being found suggests that he wasn’t planning on being seen at all –it’s safe to say that none of whatever _this_ is was aimed at him in any way, shape or form.

The simplest conclusion is, however unlikely, the correct one: Markus is real. Has been for the whole time and is clearly _all grown up_ , too.

“Holy crap.”

Connor doesn’t seem too worried, which is a good sign already. He still sounds pretty embarrassed, though. “Dad… I can explain.”

“Oh please, do. I’m all fucking ears.” He might keep a more open mind than most, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t protective of his boy.

After being sat down and given a cliff notes on the Shadow Realm and its inhabitants, Hank is not completely convinced yet, but empirical evidence is what it is, so he just nods and lets out a low whistle at the end of the explanation.

“Wow, so you got yourself an interdimensional boyfriend, huh?”

Connor promptly turns scarlet. “It’s not like that, dad!”

“You two sure looked cozy on the couch.”

Markus is glad that it’s not as evident when he blushes. Still, he does try and let Connor save face: “It, uh… it’s just a habit for us. We’re used to being very close, since we were kids. I meant no disrespect.”

Sure, he has all the credibility of a shirtless guy with pierced nipples snuggling with the man’s sleeping son, but hopefully Hank appreciates the honesty. As it turns out, the Lieutenant fixes a sort of _look_ on him, like he doesn’t quite believe Markus but is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Hm. Sure.” He says, somewhat gruffly, before his face changes into a smirk. “Well, whatever it is that you boys do, remember to use protection, alright?”

“ _Dad_!!!!”

Markus knows he probably shouldn’t be so amused at Connor’s embarrassment, but he can’t help the fond laughter that escapes him. He’s not really thinking when the words escape his mouth:

“Yeah, like I could be _that_ lucky.”

This makes Connor whip his head around and stare at him in disbelief, like he suddenly sprouted additional heads or something. Hank seems oddly satisfied by that answer. Before Connor can properly formulate words in reaction to what Markus just said, Hank moves to get up.

“Well, boys, sorry for intruding, I was just popping by to give Connor some news from the Academy…”

Markus gets up in turn. “Please, stay. I was going to have to leave soon anyway.”

“Are you sure, Markus? You don’t have to…” Connor stops himself short when his friend just turns to him with _that_ smile and grabs both of his hand like he always does.

“I have to go do a quick patrol. You know how it is.” He doesn’t really notice his voice going an octave lower, but then again, he doesn’t notice much except Connor and how good it feels to touch his hands when they’re this close. “Spend some time with your father. You don’t do that nearly enough.”

“Come back later?”

“I’ll _always_ come back for you.”

Markus has clearly no problems going for the hug in front of Hank, and Connor just knows his dad will instantly be on his case –he _is_ a cop after all. His friend disappears in a sideways projected shadow coming from the couch; and that at least finally convinces Hank of the undeniable truth.

The Lieutenant walks up to the point Markus just shadow-jumped from and taps the floor a couple times with his foot.

“Huh.” He comments after the superficial examination. “I’ve seen some weird shit in my time but this takes the cake.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Connor hopes the marvel of it all will derail his father from more embarrassing waters.

No such luck, if the shit eating grin Hank comes back to sit on the couch with is any indication. “Why don’t _you_ tell me about it? Markus seems like a nice dude.”

Damn it. “There’s nothing to tell, dad.” He tries his best to appear unimpressed and just exasperated, but his father is not buying it for one second:

“Oh, come on! ‘ _I’ll always come back for you’_ … really?” the excessively breathy baritone Hank attempts to make fun of their little exchange with is absolutely terrible, but it does manage to make Connor laugh.

“It’s just a thing we used to say when we were kids.”

And yet, Connor doesn’t look his father in the eyes as he protests.

Hank doesn’t have to be a police Lieutenant to know that look on his son’s face. He takes a look around, between the opened pizza boxes and the movie credits still going on mute, and can’t quite hold back a smile as he sighs and points something out to Connor:

“…But you’re not kids anymore.”

The deep breath that Connor takes in and out tells Hank that his son knows that all too well.

“Definitely not.” There’s a small pause, just enough for the two of them to exchange a silent look, and finally Connor sighs in defeat. “I’m not slick, aren’t I?”

Hank laughs fondly. “Not even a _little_.”

 

Markus thinks about Connor for a large part of his patrol, but he makes sure to make a note of anything worthy –souleater activity is quite low in the city these days, but he still manages to catch one and wrestle it into a portal before it can latch on a child’s psyche.

He hands the captive off to Elijah when he gets back to their station; and finally goes home to get some well-deserved rest. Opening his extra eyes to adjust to the near-complete darkness, Markus takes in the hall before him, decorated with fluorescent paintings, and walks up the stairs with a smile, enjoying the feeling of the carpet under his feet. He is halfway to his room when he gets stopped by a voice.

“Welcome home, Markus.”

Carl Manfred has never been an excessively big man, his accident and his age make him look possibly even smaller than he actually is, but none of that takes away from the elegant air of quiet power that he exudes, even from his wheelchair.

Markus smiles upon seeing the gentle gaze directed at him. “Hello, father.”

All four of Carl’s eyes are open, his main two a vibrant blue, like Leo’s and Markus’ right one, while his extra ones are golden –their father surely cut an impressive figure when he was younger; he still does, even though old age has greyed his skin some and he’s _stuck to the damn chair_ , as the man himself says.

“You were out for a while.”

There it is. The slightly uncomfortable subject for them both. “Yeah…”

“Did you visit Connor again?”

Knowing better than to lie to his old man, Markus just nods and falls back into steps while pushing Carl along.

“I’m sure Lucy updated you on the situation…” he starts, beginning with the good news, “She’s got everything under control, but um… Connor’s father may have seen me today.”

“Goddamn it, Markus.”

“I know!” he leans to the side and shoots his hands out in a pacifying motion, “I know it sounds bad, but he was really chill about the whole thing! And Connor trusts him, so I trust him too!”

“Markus…”

“I mean he gave me this weird look, but it’s probably because he thought I was banging his son—”

“Well you aren’t exactly _subtle_ , my boy.”

Ouch. Markus can sometimes forget that Carl’s many eyes are not just for show. His father has reprimanded him more than once about his gigantic crush on his human friend –it isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se, but having seen humanity at its worst Carl just wants his son to be careful with whom he gives his heart to, and Markus can understand that.

It’s just that he _knows_ Connor wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, they grew up together; and he wishes his father would trust him on this. But Carl is trying to keep an open mind, and his concerns are not completely unimaginable, after all.

“Tell you what.” His father’s voice startles Markus out of his thoughts, “Why don’t you tell Connor how you actually feel about him? That way we can have one of those embarrassing meet-the-parent dinners and I can see for myself how trustworthy your crush is.”

Markus’ whole posture goes rigid. “I… I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

“Ah, but you said ‘yet’. That’s progress.” They have finally made it into his room and Carl motions for Markus to step around to face him. “My son, how is it that you can fend off horrible monstrosity who could literally leech the life essence out of you…and yet are scared of doing something so simple as to confess your feelings to someone you care about?”

“Wow, you’re really letting me have it today.” Markus comments, used to Carl’s frankness but still amused that his father would try to help him pursue a relationship he wouldn’t necessarily approve of. “…Maybe because if I get a no I have to respect that and there’s nothing I can really do about it.”

Carl hums in thought at that. Fair’s fair— you can fight danger, but you have to accept and respect rejection, if it comes. That being said, based off Markus’ descriptions and tales about Connor only, he’s being an idiot and they should have gotten together years ago.

“Aren’t you the one quoting that ‘ _the things you get in life are the ones you have the courage to ask for_ ’?”

“That’s a low blow.” And yet it brings a smile to Markus’ face.

His father just looks at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly regretting nothing. “Just… promise to think about it, ok? And _talk_ to me if you need to.” He pleads, tone softening from his usual calm authority as he reaches out both hands to cradle Markus’ face, “I just want you to be happy.”

They can disagree over things, sometimes even fight, but that’s the one truth waiting for them at the end of the day.

“I know, father.” He whispers, closing his eyes at the contact, “And I promise.”

Leo and Markus even have a system of sorts in place: they tell each other pretty much everything; and they have an unspoken agreement where if one of them thinks the other is being an idiot and keeping secrets from Carl, it’s fair game to talk to their father about it if the worry is justified. They never really had to use it for anything major, but it serves well to keep them grounded and remember what family is really for.

His brother is out to the clinic right now, and he probably won’t be back in time before Markus is off again but Markus still feels his heart get warmer imagining what advice Leo would give him about Connor.

 

“I say you should stop being a little bitch and just tell him.” Josh doesn’t seem to have any reservations being straightforward, when they meet up for the last patrol.

Markus just briefly tears his gaze from the surrounding area and scoffs at his cousin. “Pot, meet kettle?” he asks, “I didn’t hear you say anything to Simon, either.”

“Simon is different. He’s just sweet like that.”

Privately, Markus wonders if he’s in as much denial as Josh is. Activity around them is pretty low on this side of the veil, which is good considering how hard they’ve worked to clean it up in the past few years, so they can afford to chat a bit.

“Really?” he nudges Josh with his elbow, “Connor told me he never asked Simon out back when they were teens because apparently Simon _‘only ever had eyes for Josh’_ …”

That catches the other’s attention. “What?”

“Honest! Apparently you have been Simon’s _awakening_.” Which is more polite than yelling at him to do something about his big gay crush already, especially when Markus himself has no grounds to talk about it. Josh goes pensive, so Markus is willing to call that a win –if nothing else, his cousin will at least consider making a move.

Seriously, the petite, innocent-looking girl has been the bravest of them all, by the looks of it. Kara wasted no time in making Luther her significant other. Markus can respect people who know what they want and put themselves out there.

Plus, Luther is quite the hopeless romantic, so… match made in heaven.

“I... never thought about it.” Josh is clearly gone, daydreaming about his textbook-perfect ‘Little Prince’. Markus doesn’t comment on it, going back to business:

“Let’s round up the sector and go.”

“Eager to go back, are you?”

Markus doesn’t hide the smile. “I dare you to blame me.”

“Fair enough.” Josh concedes, “Elijah has been lowkey complaining about you taking stupid risks.”

“Elijah is a very diligent officer, but should shut up for a change. I brought him a shiny new souleater just today.” It’s probably not too nice to ignore the man’s opinion so blatantly, but Elijah has a way of making even an honest concern sound annoying. And Markus doesn’t really like the way Elijah sometimes tries to manipulate people into sharing his point of view— he appreciates the worry, but the other shadow-man has the mistaken idea that just because Markus is younger, he needs to be sheltered like a literal child.

Needless to say, it made for a lot of arguments, until they eventually agreed to just keep it professional.

Elijah’s tendency to flirt at anything with legs notwithstanding.

Mercifully, Josh drops the subject and just helps him finish up the patrol, and Markus is already shadow-jumping as they say goodbye.

 

The thump under the bed doesn’t even make Connor jump anymore.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to move that shadow door?”

Markus rolls out from underneath the bed with a chuckle. “I probably should, before I get concussed. What do you suggest?”

“The closet?” Connor suggests, after making a show of thinking about it, “That way you can even grab a shirt on the way out.”

“And deprive you of the show? Pass.” The shadow-man says it as a joke, but he notices Connor’s gaze dropping to his chest at that, before he averts his gaze entirely.

Very interesting.

“So how was your night so far?” Connor eventually asks. He moves to the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed, trying not to think about Markus watching his every move even after he turns out the lights –Markus doesn’t need them, and the bioluminescence from his eyes helps Connor get around in the dark.

“Blessedly boring. Yours?”

“Well, my dad doesn’t think I’m crazy, so that’s a plus. He was just over to tell me some bureaucracy stuff about my detective training.” He tries to be as inconspicuous as possible with stripping down to his underwear to put some sweatpants on for bed; and Markus politely pretends to be engrossed in something else, but Connor still gets the feeling that his friend snuck a glance— he’s kinda flattered, to be honest. “ _And_ he hasn’t run screaming bloody murder about demons, so that is also good. He teased me a bit about this ‘Monsters Inc.’ situation, but he seems to like you well enough.”

Definitely a good thing. Markus lets out a breath of relief he wasn’t expecting to feel.

“It’s nice to know he won’t try to exorcise or arrest my ass. It would be embarrassing to explain back home.”

They both laugh at that, and Connor plops down on the bed close to Markus –the sudden yelp from the shadow-man startles him and he shoots back up only to discover he had accidentally sat on his tail.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t even look!”

The panic and guilt in his eyes is honestly endearing, but Markus just shakes his head and even swishes his tail back and forth to prove it’s fine: “It’s okay, I was distracted and didn’t think to move it. You did nothing wrong. See?”

Connor reaches out a hand to check, but freezes halfway. “This is not going to be a weird, intimate thing like grabbing your ass, is it?”

It honestly sends Markus into cackling.

“No. No, I promise, it’s not inappropriate.” He promises, reaching out to place Connor’s hands on his tail himself. “It’s just another limb, like an arm or a leg.”

Connor is unsure at first, and a part of his brain argues that caressing someone’s arm up and down like that still wouldn’t be exactly normal, but his response goes straight to humor to avoid feeling embarrassment.

“There are _so many_ bad jokes about three-legged people that could be made right now.”

“And I’m very proud of you for recognizing they would be bad.”

Markus’ tail feels so strange under his hands. Because the other can move it voluntarily, the closest comparison Connor’s mind makes is a snake –one long line of muscle with a thin core structure. Tentacles would have been another, but there are no bones in those. Plus, just the word makes his imagination go to places best left untouched, even though the snake thing isn’t any better. It’s just another limb, Markus is right. No reason to make a big deal out of it.

No reason at all.

Too late. Connor already noticed the smooth texture of it and the fact that the end of it is blunt and wondered exactly how dexterous Markus could be with it.

If there’s a hell, Connor’s headed there _fast_.

“See? I told you it was fine.” Markus has a knowing grin on his face, and _oh God_ he brings the very end of his tail to Connor’s cheek in a pretend caress. It takes a lot of mental fortitude not to lean into the touch too much, but he manages to simply follow through with the motion of sitting back down on the bed. “I’m not made of porcelain, you know? I don’t break easy.”

To be fair, Markus did show off while doing push-ups off his tail on the very first night of their reunion. But now Connor can’t help but notice how goddamn sexy those four words are— after all, Markus just today revealed to him that he makes a living fighting off interdimensional threats, holy shit.

“I… I can see that.” Understatement of the century, considering Markus also has abs that he could bounce a quarter off of. Silence falls between them, and Connor cannot remember what the hell they were talking about. 

“So, uh… my father kinda freaked out when I told him one more person knew about me.” Ah, that’s it! Fathers and the two of them being discovered.

It makes them sound like secret lovers.

Heh, if only.

“Are you in trouble?” he asks Markus, to which he receives a small shake of the head and a gentle expression on his face.

“No. He worries, but he trusts who I trust.” The shadow-man’s words do calm him down, but then there comes the bomb: “…Even though he mentioned wanting to meet you one of these days.”

Oh God, Connor is so not ready for that. And they’re not even dating!

“That… would be an honor..?” he tries, he really does, but Markus sees right through him and the laughter comes back full force:

“You don’t have to be scared. He’d love you, just like…” there’s a jumble pause of sorts, before Markus clears his voice somewhat awkwardly and continues. “You’d only have to be yourself for him to see how good of a person you are.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Sure you’re not.” Markus nods, looking at him with the mischief that Connor loves to pretend he hates. “Like you weren’t scared of the dark.”

Connor bumps shoulder with his friend. “I haven’t been scared of the dark in a long time.”

Markus rises to the bait: “Does that mean I should just go?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Settling back into the bed, the shadow-man leans back on one side and opens his arms. “Do you want me to keep you company until you fall asleep?”

“For old times’ sake? Sure.” Connor only realizes his mistake when he remembers that this custom of theirs started back when he was still a kid and Markus offered to hug him as he slept, since anything that would be moving in the darkness would allegedly be scared of Markus himself.

An adorable premise, but, as Hank so succinctly put it a few hours back, _they’re not kids anymore_.

Connor can only be thankful that he’s the little spoon, tonight. He can feel every inch of Markus’ bare chest make contact with his back and he just knows it will take him a while to fall asleep –especially when an unfortunate choice of movement momentarily lines his hips with Markus’.

 _Definitely_ not kids anymore, holy fuck.

He takes a long, trembling breath to try and get his mind out of the gutter –it’s surprisingly manageable: before arousal came into play, he always associated being held by Markus with safety, friendship and affection… so when he feels the slightest touch of lips on his shoulder, just as he’s about to fall asleep, he simply smiles into the pillow and lets the warmth of it all lull him into pleasant dreams.

Truth is, they both missed this, enough to wonder how they ever went on without it. In these moments, no talking is necessary, and they are free to just _be_ , until the dawn comes.


	6. Souleaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit gets real, and Connor bangs his head against it.
> 
> Literally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEADS UP: MENTIONS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, I WILL UPDATE THE TAGS WITH A FEW WARNINGS IMMEDIATELY.
> 
> The story has suddenly taken a darker turn because of the nature of souleaters and what they do. There will never be anything too graphic, but the nature of the content is what it is, dark themes will be implied and/or referenced from here on out.
> 
> My arm feels better, I only have a mild pain at the elbow as opposed to the complete incapacitation of yesterday, but updates will still slow down from now on - I'm starting a new job soon and I will also have my father visiting from the 27th to the 3rd of April, and he'll likely want to spend some time with me.
> 
> BIG EDIT: The lovely RedVioletta made an awesome Lucy drawing inspired to her monster form for me! [Ankad](https://www.deviantart.com/redvioletta/art/Lucy-790722152?ga_submit_new=10%3A1553306034) on Tumblr, who made a [drawing of all the monster cast as children](http://ankad.tumblr.com/post/183678314991/monsterchild-from-my-best-friend-the-monster-im) I especially love Luther's design. He'd be bigger than that, even as a child, but it's super cute all the same. And Lucy, omg. She's only missing the inverted knees, but everything else is perfect. Markus and Josh are also practically perfect save for a few very minor details, it's seriously incredible how close this person has gotten to my original idea, especially because English is not their first language and they read the whole thing through a translator, so... big round of applause, and also BIG BIG thanks. ♥ ♥ ♥
> 
> BIG EDIT 3: A friend from the RK1K discord also made this wonderful close up of Markus [here](https://imgur.com/a/kNhK6LL)!!! Thank you so much, my love ♥
> 
> That being said.... pls love me. ♥  
> (p.s.: My spellchecker is not working for some reason, I'll reread the chapter and fix grammar mistakes later, as I go)

Josh obsesses over Markus’ words for a few days.

He’s out to dinner with Simon, in full disguise but still enjoying the evening between a bite to eat and a few rounds of pool— the blonde is absolutely terrible at it, but he keeps trying because Josh mentioned liking it.

The past couple of weeks have been practically heaven, being able to reunite and reveal himself to his oldest and closest friend has been more than Josh ever dared to hope… even though Simon looks absolutely clueless standing awkwardly at the pool table while pretending to know how to play.

The mere thought that Simon could be trying so hard to impress _him_ makes Josh’s heart race.

“Please, put me out of my misery and just teach him.” The bartender seems to be having a laugh at the two of them.

Josh wonders if he’s _that_ obvious in his fondness for his human friend. Setting down his beer with a sigh, he walks over to Simon while the blond is still trying to puzzle what exactly the chalk is supposed to be for.

He clears his voice loudly once he’s behind Simon, which makes the human jump and drop said chalk –who gave Simon the right to be so goddamn adorable? Honestly.

Josh just chuckles, picking the chalk up and showing it to his friend. “You don’t need this.” He explains, “Any more of this stuff, and you’ll douse the entire table with chalk dust the moment you swing that cue.”

“Oh— right, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Josh says, “It’s simply something you don’t know, you don’t have to apologize for not knowing things.”

Simon doesn’t meet his eyes, seemingly more taken with Josh’s hands as they gently take the cue from him. “Okay… then thank you.”

The other nods, walking over to the side of the pool table and gesturing for Simon to follow. “That’s better. Let me help you with this.”

“Oh, right, of course. Enter the stereotypical movie-like moment where you get all snuggly behind me and the second I turn to ask you something we kiss?” Simon jokes, placing himself in front of Josh nonetheless.

There’s definitely a little bit of exasperated humor there, but it carries a slightly nervous lilt to it that makes Josh come to a decision.

“Well, if that’s what you want we can do that…” Josh says, hugging Simon from behind on the pretense of holding the cue correctly for him, “Though I’m not gonna complain if we skip straight to the kissing.”

 

Simon feels his face grow hot, he didn’t expect Josh to call him out on his joke so blatantly; and his mind promptly goes into overdrive with all the possibilities that from those few simple words. Is this it? Is he finally going to grow a spine and confess his true feelings to his longtime friend? If there ever was a moment to do that, it seems like this is it. He’s not going to get a better chance than this.

Josh is right behind them. Face mere inches from his cheek, explaining in a soft, low voice about pool sticks, and angles and… a million other little things that Simon could not care less about, because this might seriously be it.  

“You know what Josh? I don’t think I’m cut out for pool.” He eventually remarks, once he gathered enough courage to speak.  “I think I’ll take your advice and skip straight to kissing.”

With a fervor that might be unusual for him, Simon turns around in Josh’s embrace and just grabs him by the shoulders.

Kissing Simon feels even better than he imagined when they were teenagers –the disguise has made his teeth dull and tiny and limited his tongue’s range of movement somewhat but Josh still spares no effort to explore the other’s mouth properly, while the pool cue gets abandoned on the table with no second thought at all.

A discreet clapping sound to their left nearly makes them jump, but they laugh when they notice it’s the bartender.

Clearly, they have been obvious enough for the whole evening that it must have been painful to watch.

“Just for that, your next round is on the house.” She praises, still slow clapping and this time joined by a couple of the other few patrons at the bar.

Josh is legitimately on cloud nine when he and Simon sit at the counter together to enjoy their free drink, finally able to hold hands like he wanted for so long. It may sound juvenile or even stupid, but all he wished for was this sort of companionship, the knowledge that they were special to each other and would forever be. And now he has it. Nothing could ruin this evening.

_«_ _The Bates case is the fourth obscure incident in as many weeks, though this time the death seems accidental and there was no evidence of a fight, the circumstances around the victim’s death are quite similar to the previous three._ _»_

…Nothing except that. Josh turns his gaze to the television hung high on the wall to their left, and Simon can see his face crease with worry.

_«_ _When inquired to about the matter and about a possible link between the incidents, agent Richard Perkins denied the possibility of a common cause and released no further comment, other than assuring that his division is working on it. The theories about a hidden external party carrying malicious intent as the common denominator for all four deaths has been debunked on account of lack of a motive to link all victims. More at—_ _»_

“Josh?”

Simon’s soft call startles him slightly, but he deflates with a sigh. “Sorry. I was just… distracted.” He explains, nodding imperceptibly towards the screen, “That thing going on sounds like the kind of boogeyman Markus and I go around hunting.”

“Do you need to go?”

The open worry in the human’s voice warms Josh’s heart. He smiles. “Not for tonight, now. The fourth victim is already dead, and while it’s sad that we didn’t find out about this in time, it means that the souleater will need at least a few days to stay put and regain its energy before it can strike again.” Still, he discreetly fishes his pendant out of his shirt and pushes the crystal. “I’m still gonna call Lucy about it, she’ll see to it that Markus knows as well.”

Nodding, Simon holds onto his hands tighter. “Whatever you do, please don’t make me spend days on end worrying about you without knowing where you are.”

It’s a naïve notion, but Josh wouldn’t have Simon any other way. He chuckles and brings the other’s hand to his mouth. “It’s not like I’m shipping off to war.” He teases, “Whatever is happening is here in the city. If anything, you’ll see me _more_.”

“Good. So I can be on your ass if you’re not being careful.”

The slightly huffed words are a perfect opening to change the subject: “Well, if that’s what you’re into, you can be on my ass anytime…”

“Josh!”

Oh, Simon is not fooling anyone while pretending to be so indignant.

So worth it.

 

“Sorry for making you sit through this.”

North will probably never get over looking at Lucy and _not_ seeing her light blue with tentacle hair, but a girl does what a girl has to do to be left in peace. And honestly, Lucy will forever be Lucy, regardless of looks.

She finds her friends’ hand and squeezes it gently. “It’s okay. Connor and I would have stuck together after training regardless.”

“I just want you to know… I’ll do my best to keep you from danger, but there might be a few bumps on that road.” Lucy tells her, returning the gesture.

They bump shoulders and find Connor easily enough once he steps out of the precinct.

“Hey. Where’s Markus—”

“Right here.”

“— _Jesus!_ ”

Okay, he may or may not get a kick out of startling people. He holds back a laugh and shakes his head minutely. “Wrong, but flattering I guess?”

North huffs and crosses her arms. “Dick move, dude!” then she turns to point an accusing finger at Connor: “And _you_! You didn’t even warn me!”

“What? I saw him coming a mile away, I didn’t think you wouldn’t.” Connor shrugs his shoulders and tilts his head, the very picture of innocence. North is not buying that for a second.

Clearing her voice, Lucy calls them all back to attention. “Gentlemen, if I may?”

They all start walking together, talking among themselves in hushed tones but looking like your average group of friends just hanging out.

“Josh sent me the message about the case last night, and the m.o. is consistent with that souleater who would spend weeks lurking in big family households looking for the weakest link in the chain to poison their mind and gorge itself on the negativity.”

“But I thought we caught them.” It’s not entirely impossible for two souleaters to have similar habits and common hunting grounds, but this is a little on the nose, “I took a dive in the river to catch that sucker!”

“And survived?” Worry briefly takes the forefront of Connor’s mind while the mental image of a drenched Markus stores itself in the back of his head for further speculation.

The smirk he gets in reply doesn’t help: “Shadow-jumping is one hell of a skill if you can think fast.”

“Yes, and you also spent a week bed-ridden.” Lucy rolls her eyes –she’s obviously not a stranger to Markus’ tough guy bravado. While that may not be the correct term for it, Connor has come to understand that a lot of the time Markus acts… well, not recklessly, but tends to disregard his safety or comfort on the assumption that ‘he can take it’.

Which is a recipe for disaster and going to bite him in the ass, sooner or later.

Connor dearly hopes he’s wrong.

“That being said…” Lucy continues, “I’ve ran a few checks, and you _did_ catch the correct souleater. This is merely a new one… possibly picking up the now abandoned ‘hunting ground’.”

“On the _exact_ same pattern the other left off? Seems fishy.” Markus definitely doesn’t like the direction this is taking: either they’ve stumbled upon a _pack_ of souleaters and upset its balance, or something deeper and worse is going on.

“I know, and I don’t like it either. Especially because it seems they’ve doubled down the effort ever since S-13’s capture.”

“Retaliation?”

“It’s the simplest explanation, but from who?”

“Okay, both of you just stop!” North interrupts their musings, “Let’s rewind for a second. You guys told us that these things never really get organized, right?”

“And that even those that would move in packs prefer to hide here rather than be brought back to the shadow realm…” Connor adds, remembering Markus’ words and the implications of souleaters being scared of them— physical forms largely abandoned, they would need to feed on a lot of souls before posing an actual threat to creatures who are aware and in control. “So doesn’t this whole thing… reek of third party influence?”

It’s a possibility neither of them wanted to consider, but other explanations are few and far-fetched.

Markus sighs. “If someone knows of the other side of the Veil and is trying to manipulate souleaters for their gain, we’re not safe to be around.”

“The danger would still be there if we were to split, on the off-chance we really are all compromised.”

Connor grabs Markus’ wrist and squeezes it. “I agree with Lucy. Separating now would only let a hypothetical attacker pick us off more easily, one by one.”

“Yeah, plus we’re _not_ gonna let you guys risk your necks alone.” North points out. She only just recently found her best friend again, she’s not about to give her up just like that.

Lucy has always been the one person to understand her, to ask her how she felt rather than trying to restrain her— they stuck together through the temper tantrums, the good and the bad, and if North grew into the woman she is today it was largely thanks to having someone like Lucy in her life. She can only hope she’s given back _a fraction_ of the positive influence Lucy had on her.

“Sounds fair.” Markus is the first one to yield, knowing that Connor would not be talked out of helping –and probably neither would North. “We stick together through this, all of us. I’ll get into contact with Luther as well, since an explosion was mentioned in the last case. I want to see if he detected anything.”

“I can try and get you more details about any possible links between all four cases.” Connor’s words are met with a confused expression until he explains: “I have a man on the inside, remember?”

Oh. Right. Lieutenant Anderson also knows about him. Them.

The thought makes Markus more nervous than he’d like to admit –Lucy looks like she’s about to laugh, but politely refrains.

“Alright.” She says eventually, “Let’s try and see how much information we can gather on this phenomenon. With _discretion_.” The last part she emphasizes while looking at North, who just shrinks into her shoulder sheepishly.

It’s their best bet for now, considering there’ll be at least a few days of radio silence.

“Once we have a lead we’ll regroup. Josh and I will take point against the souleaters and you guys will help us find whoever is pulling the strings.” Markus loathes the idea of putting Connor in any sort of danger, but if someone on this side is really trying to manipulate the Veil to their advantage, he’ll need the help.

And there’s no one he’d rather have at his side.

 

Hank Anderson is not too thrilled at the idea of having an interdimensional investigation, much less one involving his only son. Lord knows he wasn’t a perfect father, but he tried his best even as he raised Connor alone, and the mere thought of something bad happening to him was at the back of his every nightmare.

“So these… things… they prey on the emotionally vulnerable?” he asks, trying not to stare but looking seriously weirded out at Markus with the disguise on. Funnily enough, seeing the boy look like anyone else feels _wrong_. “And uh, you can drop that, you know.”

“Ah, sorry, I thought you would feel better, if… I mean, our first meeting wasn’t exactly the best…”

Despite that, Markus still sighs in relief once the disguise vanishes and he can stretch his tail again –true to his word, Anderson doesn’t seem as weirded out as last time. He even lets out a chuckle.

“Yeah well. Last time I wasn’t expecting you to be real.” He counters, “But you are. And you don’t have to hide, you’re good.”

Meaning he’s good as who he really is. Which, coming from someone like Hank, is as good as permission to freaking marry Connor right here, right now –Markus tries not to let his mind run away with the fantasy.

He blames it on being in this house after such a long time. Connor’s old room is still there, and the nostalgia factor is big… he manages to cast one glance at Connor’s door before focusing back on the conversation and clearing his voice. “Um, yes. Souleaters have a keen intuition and a very acute sense of smell, that grants them the capacity of spotting preys plagued with fear, trauma or stress-induced hormonal imbalance. The subject they go for are either physically frail, which makes their minds tired and overstressed, or prone to mental illness, which provides a huge array of ammunition for them to chip away at the victim’s life energy.”

“...so if a souleater starts stalking someone with anger issues and a history of violence, and ultimately drives them to murder another person…”

“The victims are actually two.” Markus doesn’t even know why he’s impressed –Hank is Connor’s father after all, and a remarkable individual in his own right.

“Shit. That explains why the perp we caught on the second crime scene seems to be just wasting away in jail.”

The shadow-man nods. “The souleater responsible for that has been caught and brought into containment, but the damage sustained by the victim was so severe that it wouldn’t reverse upon freedom.  Recovery will be long and difficult, and without a strong will to actually get better…”

He leaves the sentence hanging, not really having a way to finish it that doesn’t sound horrible and depressing. There’s a bout of uncomfortable silence, and a few seconds tick away as they just look at each other in Hank’s living room.

Eventually, the Lieutenant speaks: “I have a question. These souleaters… do they… _change_ people? Control their minds, and stuff?”

Markus runs both hands at his temples. “I wish I could say they do… but no. The people they target commit nothing they wouldn’t be capable of on their own.” He reveals, not noticing immediately how Connor reaches for his left hand but relishing in the contact all the same, “The souleaters thrive on negative energy, and that includes guilt, shame and self-loathing. Sure, they might provide the extra push that some people wouldn’t act without, but… they can’t create what isn’t there. They just push the bad to the surface.”

“Goddamn… and I thought _my_ job was messed up.” Hank sounds slightly disbelieving as he chances a look at Markus, “You chose one hell of a path, kid.”

The shadow-man grins. “Somebody has to.”

It’s at that point that Hank thinks these two idiots are made for each other— both selfless to a fault, stubborn like very few people in history ever were, and hopelessly head over heels for each other. It’s literally painful to watch.

“Alright, I don’t know about you boys but I need a drink.” Hank goes for the kitchen, passing his sleeping Saint Bernard on the way as he goes for a cold one.

Sumo stirs from his doggie bed in the kitchen and waddles over, curiously sniffling at the new presence in the house.

Markus freezes— right, he used to never step outside of Connor’s room, but his smell must have clung to Connor in the past. The huge, slobbery pup goes straight for his stomach, and Markus doesn’t dare move for fear of scaring him or otherwise upsetting him.

“Be a good dog, Sumo…” Connor is not really trying to restrain the dog in any way, too amused by Markus’ hesitance to even touch the big doofus.

“Connor, could you—” Sumo tries to nuzzle his hand, and Markus closes it in a fist to prevent his sharp nails from accidentally hurting him, “Connor, come on, I don’t wanna hurt it…”

The other just gives him a mischievous look. “He’s not made of porcelain, you know.”

“That’s cheating.” Also, Connor is way too adorable using his words against him. Tentatively, Markus uncurls his hand and lets the dog sniff it some more, before finally giving in and petting Sumo over the head and behind the ears.

It’s starting to look every bit like a perfect meet-the-father date.

So of course it couldn’t last. A crash and a scream echo from outside the house, not too far.

“Oh, man…” Hank mutters, going in his room and coming back with his gun.

“Dad? That sounded like Ms. Rakli.” Connor stands as well when he sees his father come back armed.

Hank gives him a suffering nod. “Yeah. Her partner is an angry drunk. It’s been one of those everyone knows it, nobody says it things…” his voice sounds full of regret, “There was never any hard evidence against him and she never denounced him…”

Markus straightens suddenly “How long has this been going on?”

Hank shrugs. “Years. Decades even. He’s always professing love to her and apologizing once he’s sober, but…”

Another crash turns all their heads towards the noise. “Did it ever get _this_ loud?”

“No. I would usually know because I’d see her bruises in the morning sometimes—” Hank cuts himself off with a gasp when Markus pulls up his [cloaking](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/96/30/d99630c0d4730b141a63362c25241010.png), assuming a rather terrifying form.

 ** _“I’ll meet you inside.”_** Is all the says, voice displaced and echoing slightly, before almost literally dissolving under the couch, leaving a very confused Saint Bernard wondering where the new friend just went.

A second scream from the neighboring house has Connor and Hank running.

Hank tries knocking first. “Ms. Rakli?” all sounds cease when he does, meaning whoever is inside stopped to listen. “Veronika, this is Hank! Hank Anderson! Is everything alright???”

The door gets opened a sliver, and the face of the petite woman peeks nervously at the two of them. Ms. Rakli was Auntie Vee when he was little, and she would sometimes bring homemade Hungarian dishes to them, sometimes in thanks for something that Hank fixed for her, sometimes just because she was a nice neighbor. Connor doesn’t really remember the lady that well, other than recalling her Hungarian surname and how kind she always was when they crossed paths, if a bit jittery and standoffish.

Still, it’s obvious even to him that her smile doesn’t reach her eyes, and that she’s scared out of her mind –the problem is, unless they can see something putting her in danger, they cannot justify insisting to come in.

“H-Hank, I am so, so sorry for the noise, I was just—” her voice is trembling, and it’s sickening to think she’d be so afraid that she’d feel forced to _cover_ for her tormentor. “Something fell and… broke… and I got… scared.”

“Veronika, is everything alright?” Hank tries again, “I can help.”

“Y-you really shouldn’t trouble yourself, it’s—”

_“Why is he not gone yet, woman?! Is this the thanks you give me for taking care of you? Cheating on me with some lowlife cop?!”_

“Dave, no we’re just talking—”

Connor is staring at his father with utter confusion in his face, but Hank just shakes his head slightly –Dave has a history of thinking that any man who so much speaks to his partner is hitting on her, and that she’d be into each and every one of them.

“I have _had_ it with your excuses, Veronika! I’m tired of you pulling this shit over and over—”

“Okay, screw this—”

Three things happen simultaneously at that point: Hank rears to kick the door open, Dave grabs Veronika to drag her away and to the floor while brandishing a belt with his other hand… and Markus shows himself to Dave in full cloaking.

“ _Jesus_!!! What the fuck is that?!” scared out of his wits, the man lets go of his victim and stumbles back. “You guys see that?!”

“That’s the least of your problems, you scumbag!” Connor says, making a bee-line for Veronika to help her up and out of range, while Hank places himself in between them as a shield and Markus retreats in _his_ shadow as to not look like an actual, physical entity. “You’re going to have to respond of assault and domestic violence. Come quietly and don’t make it any worse for yourself.”

 ** _“Careful Hank, the souleater is hiding in his shadow.”_** It’s weird to hear Markus’ voice so close to his ears when the other is actually a few feet behind him, but the Lieutenant just goes with it and throws a look around to see if he can discern anything.

Dave’s shadow looks bigger and darker than the current light sources and angle would normally warrant, but other than that no, Hank can’t see a thing. “What do we do?”

 ** _“We need to drive it out, separate it from the man, and have them attack two different sources.”_** Markus explain, not liking what’s to come next either but with no real other choice: **_“The man will lunge for his victim, the souleater will come for me once I show myself. Call the lady’s attention, and be ready.”_**

Taking a deep breath, Hank obliges. “Veronika, we’re taking you out of here. And away from this man. You will be safe.”

“She goes _nowhere_ without me!!!”

Markus chooses that moment to jump out of the shadows and simultaneously uncloak himself. “Now! Restrain him!”

Dave growls and resists when Connor grabs him by both wrists, thrashing about so much that Hank has to come to his son’s aid while Veronika can barely follow what’s going on, but there’s a strident screech coming from just behind Dave’s form before an indistinct cloud of blackness seems to evaporate out of the floor and dive straight for Markus.

In its incorporeal form, the souleater cannot really hurt him, but it soon enough tries to condense in a more concrete entity— this won’t do, there’s too many humans here. “Get them to safety! I’ll take care of this!”

Hank has one moment to think how messed up it is to be thankful for the fact that this piece of shit is still only focused on trying to hurt his partner and hasn’t spared _one_ look towards the commotion; then he feels no remorse about hitting Dave unconscious with the butt of his gun.

“Stay with Veronika, I’ll drag this asshole out.”

Connor nods, and tries to focus on reassuring the woman that she’s safe and that everything will be alright, but the souleater is getting volatile, even though he can't quite see it, he definitely does see it when Markus gets thrown across the room.

“Markus!” he leaps to his feet before he can think better of it, “Don’t worry Ms. Rakli,  everything is under control, I’ll be right back.”

“Connor no, you can’t fight something you cannot see—” Markus’ warning barely makes it past his mouth in time.

Connor feels the air thicken around him, and suddenly every single one of his fears feels amplified by a dozen times. What if Markus is seriously hurt? What if, just outside the house, Dave regained consciousness and attacked his father? What if Hank is already dead? What if this whole thing is just a hallucination and he’s just been crazy this whole time?

What if none of the people who love him ever existed?

…but what if this is the souleater trying to latch onto him and this is all bullshit?

Connor shakes his head and feels the intrusive thoughts snap back like a severed harp string –his mind is stronger than that. His body, however, proves to be plenty vulnerable and, just as Markus got up and moved towards him, Connor feels himself get picked up by invisible hands and slammed against the ceiling.

The fall on the way back hurts less, but he still gets the wind knocked out of him –the last thing he sees before passing out is Markus punching what looks like a skeleton made of shadows, before coiling something that looks like black rope around it.

 

Veronika is in shock at having been almost killed by her partner –again – so Hank has no problem escorting her out and into his own house to keep her safe, after slapping a pair of handcuffs on Dave and calling the incident in.

He is less than pleased to re-enter the crime scene and find Markus holding a squirming mass of… something, at arm’s length while his son is _passed out on the floor_.

“You have three second to explain this.”

“He was trying to protect me.” It’s all Markus has for him, “I’ve already called for help, someone is coming to restrain this thing _and_ tend to Connor’s injury. Just… stall the patrol for three minutes when they come. I’ll take Connor to safety and then get you to him.”

There’s not much of a choice to be made. Hank glares at Markus. “You better not let anything happen to my son.”

“You have my word.”

 

When he comes to, Connor has to blink several times before realizing that there’s nothing wrong with his eyes, it’s just _that_ dark.

“Ah, there you are, sleepyhead!” someone says to his left, “For a moment I was worried you wouldn’t wake up, and my brother would kill me.”

“Brother? What—” he raises a hand to his head and finds a large, square band-aid there. His forehead hurts, but he still tries to recall the events that just transpired. The souleater in Ms. Rakli’s house, the fight, _Markus_. He needs to know if Markus is okay. “Markus—”

“Hey! Easy… easy…” the person finally comes into view, pushing against his chest gently to make him lie back down. “You took a nasty bump to the head. Markus is on his way, he’s bringing your dad, too.”

Connor has to blink again, because he’s counting five eyes on this person’s face. The stranger’s complexion is similar to Markus’, dark and striped like a tiger’s, but instead of a linear crown of five horns he’s got two pairs, one at each temple, and short dark hair covers the rest of his head.

There’s another person with them, too. He looks mildly annoyed, and from what little Connor can see the other man’s skin is almost completely white, maybe going into grey slightly. He has no horns but he doesn’t need them to look every bit as menacing as a white tiger.

If he was only speculating before, Connor is now almost certain of where he is. He still thinks it prudent to ask: “Where am I?”

“If you have to ask, you’re not as smart as Markus makes you out to be.” The man in the distance scoffs, which earns him an exasperated look from the one closer to the bed.

“Ignore Elijah.” He encourages Connor kindly, “He’s just bitchy because this whole thing means a _hell_ of paperwork for him. I’m Leo. Markus’ brother.”

Yep. He is in the shadow realm… and in Markus’ house, to be specific.

 _Shit_.

“Um… hello. My name is Connor—”

“Oh, we know.” The grey one –Elijah– seems almost amused.

Leo rolls his eyes. “You don’t _have_ to be here, Elijah.”

“I just wanna take his witness’ account and be done with it—”

“You can do that _without_ antagonizing him—”

“Well, forgive me if I’m _the_ _tiniest bit peeved_ about this mess—”

“Are you sure it’s about that and not about my brother? Because it seems to me—”

Mercifully, a third voice interrupts the two’s back and forth: a very familiar, very soothing one for Connor.

“Jeez, you two argue like a married couple.” Markus is here. And he brought Hank with him. The other two shadow-men instantly quiet down at the teasing remark, while Hank crosses the distance to the bed he’s lying in with three quick strides.

“Connor! You gave me one hell of a scare, kid, are you ok?”

He takes the lull in the conversation as a chance to figure that out for himself. He definitely felt the bump on his forehead, but it doesn’t hurt nearly as badly as he would have expected –and he’s pretty sure he lost blood at some point during the confrontation; but he actually only feels like he’s been punched a bit too hard.

“I’m… surprisingly fine.”

“He’s probably going to be a bit dizzy for a few minutes still, but he’ll be good to move soon.” The man at his side assures.

When Markus moves forward to hug him and hold him close, it really registers in Connor’s head that it’s his _brother_.

“Thanks, Leo.”

“Anytime, little brother.”

Rather than focus on the fact that he completely fucked up his chance of making any sort of good impression on Markus’ family, Connor decides to just go with the flow: “What happened?”

Markus is by his side in one instant, rearranging the pillows behind him so he can sit up a little straighter.

“You took a hit that was meant for me.” He explains, ghosting a hand over the human’s temple gently, “The souleater was rearing up to try and damage me, but you intervened and it tried to enter your head. It failed, so it tried to condense and hurt you as much as possible with the last of its energy, in the hopes that it would prevent me from chasing it.”

“Lucky for you, I forced my brother to have me on speed-dial a long, long time ago.” Leo cuts in with a mischievous smile.

Connor nods, turning to his father briefly. “How’s Ms. Rakli?”

“Veronika’s in shock, but she’ll be okay eventually. Tina is staying at her house until she’s calmed down, and the boys took her piece of trash boyfriend in for assault and multiple accounts of domestic violence.”

Relieved that a good officer is taking care of the lady, and that considering how distraught she was for the whole incident any memory of Markus _or_ the souleater will be disregarded as a play of shadows and fear, Connor is able to focus on one detail: “And how long has she been ‘ _Veronika’_ , instead of being Ms. Rakli?”

“Oh, no. You don’t get to be a little shit at _me_ , not about this.”

Hank is a gentleman, first and foremost, and while he didn’t approve of the garbage-man that Veronika let move in with her, he would have never put her in such an uncomfortable position.

Connor hums thoughtfully at his words. “Suit yourself. But we’re not done talking about this.”

“Excuse me? Could we please spare a thought for humans physically seeing a souleater _and_ piercing the Veil?” Elijah finally gets up from his chair on the far end of the room, grabbing for Markus at the elbow, “I don’t like this any more than you like my presence here, Markus, I just want to take their witness account and do my job.”

“I understand that, Elijah, believe me, I do…” Markus sounds… exasperated, “But while this is just another day on the job for you, it’s very traumatic for _them_. Show a little empathy, will you?”

Empathy is admittedly something Elijah doesn’t exactly excel at— his work as a defender and the amount of time spent bringing souleaters into containment and watching them fail at rehabilitating has made him a bit cynical.

He holds Markus’ gaze for a moment longer, but ultimately deflates.

“Fine. Let them have their rest. But _you’re_ writing the report on this.”

Markus inclines his head in a nod of acceptance. “Thank you.”

Elijah is blunt, callous and acts uncaring, but Connor watches leave with a smile on his face –he doesn’t seem that bad after all.

He’s still smiling when he turns to face Markus; and he finally notices— Markus has four eyes as well. Above his ‘normal’ eyes, slightly farther apart on his temples, there’s two more eyes: a golden one just above the blue one, and an amethyst one above the green. They blink at different intervals, and carry the same slight bioluminescence as his main ones.

Just when he thought Markus couldn’t get any more beautiful.

“You did a stupid, reckless thing.”

Markus’ tone is chastising, but there’s a fondness in his gaze that makes up for it. Connor dares to hope.

“I saw you _flung across a room_! I couldn’t just sit and watch!”

“And you thought it would be a good idea to step in and fight a creature that you couldn’t touch _or_ see?”

“I might have… panicked slightly.”

Just behind Markus, Leo leans sideways to whisper a question to Hank:

“Are they always like this?”

The Lieutenant has to make an effort not to laugh. “To my knowledge? Yeah.”

“Oh _god_.”

It makes Markus turn towards his brother with a mildly indignant expression. Leo seems completely unaffected, and addresses Connor instead.

“Would you like to get up, Connor? You’ve been out for about half an hour, moving around a bit might do you some good…” he suggests, nudging his brother to go ahead and help the human up.

Connor is already throwing the covers aside and stepping out of bed when Markus offers his shoulder to hold on. “Thank you, yes… I think so, too…”

Hank is quick to join the two of them at his other side. “Easy, son… you good to go?”

“I… yes. Yes, I’m good.” Connor only falters for a second in his step, before he finally finds his balance again and can let go of Markus, too.

“Great!” Leo comments gleefully, shooting Markus a glance that promises only mischief, “There’s someone who’s been dying to meet you!”

“Leo—”

“Oh, come on! This is as good a time as any!”

“We can’t just spring this on him—”

“It’s for the best. Don’t you trust me, brother?”

“About as far as I can throw you.”

Connor is pretty sure Markus could throw his brother pretty far. Not that it matters, because whatever they were arguing about is interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

“Markus. Will you introduce me to your friend?”

It’s incredible how that calm, almost unassuming voice still manages to silence the room. The newcomer is a slim, elderly man sitting in a wheelchair –he’s got four eyes, just like Markus. Two of them are blue, the other two golden.

“Um, sure…” in all their time together, Connor has never seen Markus look so sheepish, but he soon finds out why: “Father, this is Connor, and his dad, Lieutenant Hank Anderson… Connor, Hank… meet Carl Manfred. My father.”

Through Connor's still mildly sluggish mind, two words resonate more than anything else:

_Well, shit._


	7. What goes 'bump' n the early morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luther is right; Markus does need to step up his game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay! I had a whole week of practically writing nothing at all because I had family over and we did a bunch of work around the house.  
> Either way, as the winner of today's poll, here's chapter 7!
> 
> Finally, after 30k words or so, we get some progress! ♥
> 
> I swear I will try to progress the plot too at some point. Pinky promise.
> 
> Now onwards with the other two. XD
> 
> why do I do this to myself. I need help.

Connor just barely got used to the sight of Markus having an extra set of eyes. Carl Manfred’s presence is intimidating without even trying, and he wonders if Markus felt like that when Hank caught them snuggling on his couch.

Damn it, brain, this is _not_ the time to be thinking about snuggling Markus on a couch— did they give him painkillers? He feels a little bit loopy. Hopefully he doesn’t say anything embarrassing.

“Um, sir.” He attempts, “It’s an honor to finally meet you.” So far, so good. Markus used to talk to him a lot about his father and brother, even back when they were teens.

“Right back at you.” Carl says in a chuckle, “You have no idea how hard it is to get this one to shut up about you.”

“Father, _please_.”

“I let you bring _two_ humans here and endanger the secrecy of the Veil itself. I get to poke a little fun.”

Connor barely has the time to dreamily think ‘Markus has talked about me’ as he watches Carl chuckle at his son’s embarrassment and then fix his stare on Hank.

Oh Lord, it’s a Grumpy Old Men face-off.

Hank is obviously way out of his depth— he had barely been coming to terms with Connor’s ‘imaginary’ friend being a real creature, then his neighbor got attacked by her crazy drunk husband who was half-possessed by a soul-eating monster.

Police Lieutenant or not, it’s a lot to take in.

“You must have been worried sick for your boy.” Carl offers in lieu of a greeting, and Hank nods.

“He’s the only reason I’m standing here patiently and waiting for answers.”

Luminescent pupils shine brighter in amusement. “I can respect that. I’ve got two of them.” He says, gesturing towards Markus and Leo, then showing Hank towards a corridor, “Please, walk with me and ask away.”

“I…” the way Hank looks at Connor would have been obvious even to someone without children.

“Markus would sooner die than let anyone hurt Connor.” Carl assures, “He is under the full protection of this household. And that’s a father’s promise.”

The Lieutenant holds Carl’s gaze for a second, looks back at Connor, who is being fret over by a still very agitated Markus, and finally relents. “Alright. Let’s talk.”

 

Watching the two move away, Markus quiets down for a moment. “Your father is taking all of this much better than I expected.”

“Well, you know… the perks of being in the force.” Connor muses, “He doesn’t care about frills and embellishments; he just wants to be properly equipped to keep people safe and not lose his mind.”

Behind them, Leo laughs heartily. “They will get along just fine, then.” He comments, patting Connor on the shoulder, “I have to get back soon, let me have one last look at that bump so I can deem you fit for sightseeing.”

Right— Markus did mention his brother is a doctor. Connor suddenly feels guilty at the thought that Markus hijacked a medical professional because he was stupid enough to get into a fight he could not win.

He stands still, obediently turning this and that way, until Leo nods approvingly.

“You should be good to go. If you sit down, try not to get up too fast.” The shadow-doctor then turns to look at his brother despite still speaking to Connor: “…and no _strenuous_ activity at least for the next 24 hours.”

“Leo, I swear to fucking God…”

“I mean it, no more fighting, at least for a little while.” The little shit says, completely disregarding Markus’ embarrassment, “Among _other_ things.”

“ _Yes_ , we get it, _thank you very much_.” Markus interrupts, “Don’t you have a hospital full of people to take care of?”

The way his brother is getting so ruffled is only more amusing for Leo.

“So ungrateful, this one. Always pulling rank to get me to do things for him. Hope you like them bossy.” He winks at Connor and narrowly dodges a swipe at his chest from Markus –he knows all too well the other wasn’t really trying to hit him; it was just a generic motion of annoyance.

But he gets it, and there’s only so much teasing that he can do at once, so for now, he’ll let the two lovebirds be. Hopefully Markus confesses soon, because holy crap this would be hard to watch even _without_ darkvision.

Finally, blissfully alone, Markus lets himself wind down completely.

“You had me worried for a moment, you know?”

Connor watches his shoulder sag slightly and drinks in the sight of Markus in his own element –there’s very minimal light around them, but the brightness of the shadow man’s eyes sculpts his features out of the darkness and makes him appear almost liquid as he moves around the room, walking with a sway that has Connor pointedly _not_ paying attention to his tail and getting a recorder out of a drawer.

“Let’s get this over with.” Markus continues, “We can go over what just happened so I can deliver this to Elijah later and keep his bitching at a minimum, and then I can show you around a bit.”

Biting his lips, Connor ponders whether or not saying what he’s thinking right now is a good idea or not.

Impulse wins, this once: “For what it’s worth… I’m sorry for scaring you, Markus. I just didn’t want to see you hurt.”

“Connor…” the other makes a sound that would have been a scoff, but turns into an affectionate sigh part-way. “I appreciate that. But you need to be prepared before you fling yourself into something like that.”

It takes them less than twenty minutes to go over the souleater incident at Veronika’s place and complete Connor’s witness account. Markus will have to take Hank’s later, if Carl hasn’t already done it, but considering the scare, the bumps and the overall rough night, they’ve more than earned a break.

“Come with me. The sun is about to rise.”

Connor’s brow arches at that offer. “Doesn’t that mean you’re usually asleep by now?”

“I can stay out a bit late, for once.” Markus objects, taking him by the hand, “Special occasion and all that. I promise, it’s gonna be beautiful.”

He couldn’t say no to the mismatched puppy eyes when there were two of them, double the amount simply means double the charm. Connor lets Markus lead him to the rooftop access of his house, where they look down over the surrounding area and watch the sunrise together –all the while trying not to think about how that’s usually a thing lovers do.

Admittedly, it is quite beautiful. The city around them doesn’t look too different from his side of the Veil, except a few key differences in vegetation and architecture –a place in nearly perpetual darkness has very different needs compared to a place with a primarily diurnal population.

The daytime in and of itself is also not as bright as the days Connor is used to, the light shining meek and tepid over a denser sky, as if there was a dark purple lens over a normal day in Detroit. It doesn’t look any less amazing, and Connor is mesmerized by the way Markus’ face changes in the growing light: his extra eyes narrow slightly at first, then he lifts a hand to try and protect his face, and finally the two eyes on top of his forehead flutter until they close, completely undetectable.

It’s fascinating enough that Connor hasn’t noticed himself lean closer to Markus’ face to observe it.

To be completely fair, Markus hasn’t noticed either… not until he turns and he finds himself almost nose to nose with Connor.

Oh _God_ , he can smell Connor’s stupid aftershave and it’s not even bothering him right now.

“We… should…” Markus’ mind is very torn right now: one part of him wants to say they should kiss, right here and now; while the other knows he should probably see Connor _and_ his father safely off to the other side.

Connor is not making the decision any easier when his eyes visibly drop from Markus’ own to his lips. “…Yes?”

Markus clears his voice and forces himself to act like a gentleman. “We should, uh, probably get your dad and get the two of you home.”

It’s the most sensible idea –he’s also feeling pretty drained from both the battle and the shadow-jump with two passengers, he has _just enough_ energy to bring them back and haul himself home so he can collapse until late afternoon.

“You’re right.” Markus might be deluding himself, but that sounds like disappointment in Connor’s voice, “I probably should let you rest, too.”

“I’ll sleep soundly knowing you’re safe.”

Connor punches him in the shoulder for being cheesy and they head back towards his room first, to grab Connor’s jacket before getting on their way to find Carl and Hank.

 

As they walk down the hallway, Connor notices two things: one, even though light here is sparse there is more than enough for a human to comfortably live during the hours of the day, if a bit gloomy a scene to look at; and two… this is a _nice house_. Markus and his family are clearly very well off.

It’s probably stupid that he feels both surprised and intimidated, it’s just… you know a dude your whole life and you’re so used to seeing him barely even bothering to dress himself, it’s hard not to make assumptions.

Then again, Leo did mention something about Markus ‘pulling rank’ to get him assistance so fast, and even Elijah was begrudgingly obedient to his childhood friend.

Shit, has Markus been a high ranking military officer this whole time?! Now Connor feels like a real jackass, on top of being an idiot.

They finally find Carl and Hank sitting around in a living room, on opposite sides of a chessboard, making conversation while playing a leisure game.

The Lieutenant is the first one to perk up, upon seeing his son.

“Hey, kiddo. Feeling better?”

“I’m okay…” he assures, not fighting his father’s fretting and letting Hank pat him on the shoulders and look him over this and that way to make sure he’s fine, “Did Mr. Manfred explain to you about the Veil?”

“Son, please, just call me Carl.” The shadow man in question interrupts, “ _Mr. Manfred_ will just make me feel like even _more_ of an old fart.”

“Um, of course, Carl. Sorry about… well, everything.” From the barging in unannounced to whatever diplomatic hassle their presence and involvement with souleaters may have caused, Connor kind of feels like he’s been a pain in the ass.

Carl levels him with an inquisitive look, golden eyes closing in favor of focusing his main blue ones on the young man. Connor swallows quietly, feeling like he’s being looked _through_ rather than _at_. Whatever Carl seemed to be searching for, though, makes him smile.

“Don’t sweat it. These things happen.” He waves the concern away with a hand, “It’s no worse than a little extra paperwork. We’ll handle it.”

Hank nods along, thinking about the times he had to spend the occasional extra hour filing bullshit reports –it’s a hassle, but it’s worth it if whatever happened served to protect a kid who did nothing wrong.

“Well, Carl, thank you for the cliff notes.” He says, extending a hand for the other to shake.

Connor it’s witnessing the miracle that is his father playing _nice_ with another adult –whatever they told each other while he and Markus were cloud gazing must have been good. That, or they bonded over their sons being reckless idiots.

“Don’t mention it.” Carl answers, shaking the offered hand. “Anything out of the ordinary happens; feel free to reach out through Markus. From what I’m told, Connor has a way to contact him at all times.”

Whoops. He didn’t think Markus would disclose that particular information to his father.

Then again, considering the dangers involved, it’s probably not so surprising… but now Hank is giving him that knowing look again. The gig is likely up and his father will definitely pester him about his gigantic crush on Markus the _second_ they get home.

Connor sighs.

“Whenever you guys are ready, I can open a door and shadow-jump you home.” Markus offers, expertly diverting the attention from the two of them “I’m sure Lieutenant Anderson wants to check on his lady friend…”

“Goddamn it, kid, not you too!” Connor feels vindicated when he spots the barest hint of pink on his old man’s face. Serves him right for poking fun at _their_ relationship.

Not that they are in a relationship.

Yet.

It might have been the scare of seeing Markus flung across a room, or the hit to his own head, or maybe even the almost-kiss when they were watching the sunrise just earlier, but Connor has decided: the next time he has the chance, he _will_ tell Markus that he has strong feelings for him, and… well, he’ll see where things go from there.

He’s not really afraid of rejection— he’s been friends with Markus for practically his whole life, he knows that even if Markus doesn’t feel the same, he’d still be his dearest and closest friend… he’s just a bit apprehensive because it would be really awesome if Markus had feelings for him too.

In the meantime, Hank has shaken off the teasing and got closer. “Well, beam us up, Scotty.”

Chuckling at the reference, Markus holds his arms out to oblige. “Bring it in, then. And hold on tight, this’ll be a ride.”

For whatever reason, it doesn’t click in Connor’s mind what exactly their destination is until it’s too late: “Markus, wait—”

They all land in a heap under Connor’s bed, groaning at the impact –from which the shadow man has dutifully shielded Connor’s head by holding a hand at his nape, but still. Not an excessively fun time.

“Dude, either you change this doorway or set up a secondary destination for when you have passengers…” Connor bemoans playfully as he crawls out after his father.

“Aw, but the bed has so much sentimental value!”

From the corner of his eye, Connor can see his father trying not to laugh at that. He appreciates the effort.

“Jokes aside though, go get some rest… you must be tuckered out!”

“Are you worried about me?” The subtle drop in Markus’ voice and the ghost of a caress at his cheek make Connor notice than the other hadn’t really stopped holding him even after they got out from under the bed.

Markus’ feather-light fingers at the side of his neck make him shiver a little bit, in all the best ways. “Of course I worry about you, you reckless idiot.”

His longtime friend tries to hide his smile by nibbling at his lower lip with sharp teeth.

“Takes one to know one.” He retorts, “I’ll come check on you later tonight.”

“Promise?”

They meet halfway for the hug.

“Of course.” Markus practically nuzzles his neck as he whispers his usual promise: “I will always come back for you.”

Connor is left alone with his father, and even though Hank is completely silence he can _hear_ the teasing.

“Go on, say it.”

“Fucking hell, Connor, you’re _both_ hopeless.”

He’s not wrong. Doesn’t mean Connor has to just take it, though.

“Hey, how about we go check how’s _Veronika,_ huh?”

Hank calls him a little shit for meddling, but he’s as obvious as Connor feels he is with Markus, making use of Connor’s bathroom to freshen up before they head out towards the Lieutenant’s house.

 

Markus barely has the strength to jump back home before he literally falls asleep on a couch.

He wakes up with his brother’s cat on his chest –which would be okay, except for the fact that Raa has six legs and weighs about 130lbs.

“Be a good kitty and get off.” He attempts, swatting away one of the feline’s three tails, “Come on, Raa, I have to get up. Go bother Leo.”

That is, if his brother even made it back from the hospital at all today –the poor soul pulls insane shifts sometimes. Still, the name ‘Leo’ alone is enough to catch the cat’s attention and have her scurrying towards Leo’s room to try and look for her bestest owner.

Markus smiles after her for a second, but it turns into a sigh when he notices all the missed calls and one angry voicemail from Lucy.

**_»_ ** **_You didn’t think it important to warn me about bringing them to your freaking house? Come to Luther’s place when you wake up._ **

Yikes. She’s speaking in three voices –she’s pissed. It’s understandable, but he didn’t really have many choices, she’ll come around.

“You asshole!”

Well, not before a few choice words, obviously.

“I know, Lucy, I’m sorry, but he was injured—”

“I’m not arguing your actions, Markus; I’m just saying you could have notified me at _any_ time.” She interrupts with a huff, before settling down some, “My job is already hard enough as is.”

Mismatched eyes look down sheepishly –she’s right, and he takes it. “Do you want a full report?”

“I downloaded it from your archives.” Lucy assures with a shake of her head, “You guys should update your security, by the way.”

“Duly noted.” Josh comments with a chuckle from his perch on Luther’s nightstand.

With giants being –well– giant, Luther’s house is one of their favorite places to hang out, since there’s buttloads of space. The big guy doesn’t mind, gentle kind soul that he is, and he mostly feels like a baby-sitter a lot of the time.

“So the souleater in Veronika’s house was not related to the string of murders we’ve been following?” Markus asks, to which Lucy shakes her head no.

“Mm-mh. That particular asshole was just eating away at that poor bastard and getting its nourishment by encouraging him to beat up the missus. Our ongoing suspects are out for far more than the occasional domestic violence.”

Markus throws back his head with an exhale. “At least Connor and Hank are not in danger.” He mumbles, “Well, no more than usual.”

“Wait, Connor _and_ Hank?” that detail has Josh’s attention, “So it’s official and you met the dad already?!”

“What? No! He was just… there, when the accident happened.”

Even Luther makes fun of him at that point: “You _really_ have to step up your game, Markus.”

“Easy for you to say, your girlfriend made it no secret she wanted to make an honest _maiden_ out of you.”

Honestly, they all concurred that out of all of them, Kara has the biggest balls, metaphorically speaking. North is a close second, being the one who taught Connor how to karate-chop people in the neck when they got too annoying.

“Still! I never thought I’d be the first one between us to confess to their human crush.”

Markus blinks at Josh with all four of his eyes. “Wait what?!” he looks from Josh, to Luther, then Lucy. “Did you know about this too?”

Finally seeing the humor in the whole thing, Lucy chuckles slightly. “Don’t look at me, North and I don’t do this whole romance and smooching bullshit.”

Fair enough. Markus sits back and remembers the moment he and Connor almost kissed, that very morning. “I don’t know guys, I don’t want to… overcomplicate things, you know? Connor already offered to help with the case through Hank, see if there’s anything fishy on _their_ side of the Veil… what if this whole thing is too much?”

“Markus, I have listened to North talk about Connor talking about you.” Lucy’s voice is back to an unimpressed deadpan. “Trust me. The only thing there’s ‘too much’ of, between the two of you is sexual frustration.”

“Ouch.”

Seems like he’s in for a little tough love, today.

He shoots a playful glare at Lucy, then glances around the whole room.

Where would he even be without them?

The discussion shifts back to their case, trying to understand how what amounts a bunch of deranged psychopaths can have the perseverance of hitting their targets in such a specific sequence, almost on a rotation basis, too… but eventually they hit a wall for the day— Josh is the first one to excuse himself, for a dinner date, of all things.

Markus is not jealous at all. Not _one_ bit. But that does remind him that he promised to check on Connor, so he goes shortly after.

 

Old habits die hard, and he still makes the jump under Connor’s bed –this time he was resting in it, if the surprised exhale is any indication.

“Hi there.” He whispers, making his way out and standing up to get by the other’s side.

The sight that greets him is almost torture: Connor is shirtless in his bed, his curly hair is all mussed and he looks like he just got rudely woken up. Markus has to resist the urge to lick his lips at the thought of leaving bite marks on those collarbones.

Connor’s sleepy voice is even more tempting. “Hey yourself.”

Markus takes a deep breath and does his best to be professional about this. He notices right away that Connor has changed the band-aid on the side of his head, likely after showering, and that it doesn’t seem stained with blood at all, not even a little.

“How’s the bump?” he asks all the same.

The human shrugs one shoulder. “I took some paracetamol for the headache and I’m tucking in early, as you can see.”

“Sorry to wake you.”

“No!” Connor reaches out a hand to grasp Markus’ wrist, “No, it’s fine… I was waiting for you.”

The universe must be testing him. Especially now that Connor guides his hand to his own face.

Markus is still determined to be a gentleman about this and _not_ to get his hands on Connor while he’s on painkillers and still recovering.

“How’s Veronika?”

“Still a bit in shock. Her partner has been arrested, with charges of domestic abuse and aggravated assault, so… yeah…” Connor tells him, a little dejectedly, before perking up slightly, “But my dad is keeping an eye on her, and referred her to a good therapist. I think he also stayed to make her dinner.”

“Your father can cook?”

“Well… he’s no world class chef, but he probably was tryharding a bit to impress her.”

This is good. It’s a distraction from his inescapable urge to take a bite at the human’s very soft-looking lips and it’s also making Connor smile.

“Ooh, are you gonna have a stepmom anytime soon?”

“Who knows… if dad ever gets over himself and grows the stones to confess, maybe—” Connor cuts himself off at that, seemingly coming to some sort of realization. “O-or maybe, you know… he’s probably going to give it some time, considering the situation she just got out of.”

So Hank is trying to be gentlemanly too. It pulls a chuckle out of Markus. “True… still, someone who really, properly cares about her might be just what she needs.”

“I guess we’ll see…” Connor all but mumbles cradling his cheek into Markus’ hand, before looking up at him. “But you’re still standing there, get in! Or do you have work?”

He has his limits. He’ll never say no to Connor inviting him in bed.

“Nah. Considering what we all went through, I can pass checking on you and make sure you recover alright as part of my work.” They’re both already laughing as he gets under the sheets by Connor’s side.

A bit of shuffling later, they’re lying side by side still, but Markus’ left arm is under Connor’s body while the human rests his head on Markus’ chest and the shadow man traces little patterns on his shoulder with his fingers.

“Have I thanked you for saving my life, Markus?” Connor asks, then, as he enjoys the feeling of Markus’ steady heartbeat just under his ear. The way said heartbeat picks up slightly makes Connor very hopeful.

“You don’t have to. You would and _have_ done the same for me.” Yes, it could be argued that Connor got hurt because he was trying to save the shadow man, but in the end Markus didn’t need much saving, and was the one to rescue Connor’s ass instead, so… moot point, in his humble opinion.

“I mean it, Markus.” He braces both hands on the other’s chest, guiltily enjoying the firmness of it, and looks at those beautiful glowy eyes as earnestly as he possibly can. “You protected pretty much everything I care about… and that means the world to me.”

With nowhere to go, Markus lets himself card a hand through Connor’s hair. “I’m— I would do it a thousand times over.”

Damn it. They used to snuggle up in bed and talk about everything they cared about when they were kids too, but… now they’re _all grown up_ , and the cool feeling of Connor’s body in his much warmer hands is already sending Markus for a loop.

“You know… _you_ also mean the world to me.”

Oh shit, is this happening? Leo assured him that the meds he had given Connor were very mild, and looking at him now his pupils look normal and he looks as in control of himself as he’s ever been. On the one hand, Markus doesn’t want to go along with this only to find out tomorrow that it was a head injury-induced mistake, but on the other hand… Connor is training to be in the police force, he’s been taught to recognize when someone’s mental state is not completely right, he’s probably capable of assessing himself.

Opting to tread carefully, he simply brings his hand up to Connor’s cheek and lets the human lean into it.

“You mean the world to me too, Connor.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that.” Connor’s smile changes slightly, and Markus barely has time to think that _oh boy,_ it is happening. “Because I’m about to kiss you, right now, and it would have been very awkward if you didn’t feel the same.”

Anticipated by his crush. Luther is right; Markus does need to step up his game.

The thought makes him laugh. Just to be 100% sure, he asks what probably is the dumbest question he ever asked: “Wait, are you really coming onto me?”

“Well, not exactly, but I hopefully will be sometime soon?”

The sheer _sass_ on this one. “That was _awful_ , even for you.”

And yet Connor is smirking, because he’s inching his way towards Markus’ lips and Markus is not stopping him. “You’re one to talk.”

“Fair enough.” Markus concedes, leaving his lips just barely parted for the human and hesitating just one last time: “Wait— just… mind the fangs.”

“I’m a big boy.” Is all Connor has to say before finally covering Markus’ mouth with his own.

 

He knew it would be warm, on account of the shadow man’s general body temperature, but it’s even better than what he dreamt it would be— almost as if Markus’ body heat is spreading through to him, engulfing in the wonderful sensation of being held and safe.

Markus’ front teeth really are very sharp –Connor feels them lightly touch his bottom lip and it steals his breath away. Somehow, the idea of someone so dangerous being so gentle, just for him, is a massive turn-on. Also, his lips are probably too fragile to try, but there’s plenty of places allover his body where Markus could go to town on him with his fangs.

And then… _oh—_

Markus’ tongue is… not absurdly long, but suffice to say that Connor will never look at the Venom comics the same way ever again.

“Oh God, Markus—”

“Easy there…” the shadow man breathes against his lips, “Remember what Leo said: no strenuous activity until tomorrow.”

“You’re a cruel, cruel tease.”

“Sorry. Doctor’s orders.” Markus reiterates apologetically, before placing a chaste peck to Connor’s mouth. “I’ll stay until you fall asleep. If you promise to take it easy, we can kiss some more.”

It’s probably for the best, the part of Connor’s mind who is still awake points out. They’ve only just admitted to generic ‘feelings’ for each other. It’s better to keep it simple for tonight, and leave the serious stuff for _after_ they’ve had a proper talk about it.

“I would like that.” He concurs eventually.

Markus seems just as happy as he is with the arrangement, carefully cradling his face with both hands to bring their mouths together again. “Good.”

They really spend however much time it takes for Connor to fall asleep simply cuddling and kissing, but it still feels more intense than any sex Connor’s had in a while.

He gets lulled to slumber by Markus’ warmth and the steady heartbeat he loves so much— needless to say, it’s the best night’s rest he has in a long time.


	8. Wake up calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s well past ten when Connor wakes again, to his cellphone ringing.
> 
> «Finally! I’d almost thought I was… interrupting.»
> 
> “Yeah, I wish. Apparently, you’re not the only gentleman around.”
> 
> «Didn’t ask. Don’t wanna know.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MOTHER OF MONSTERS THIS TOOK A GODDAMN LONG TIME.
> 
> For a number of reasons.  
> Plot is a bitch to keep together.  
> And monster sex is difficult to write. I'm bumping the rating up to Explicit even tough nothing really happens, everyone is happy, consenting and nothing too crazy is going on but... it's still monster sex, so, E rating it is.
> 
> That's literally all I have to say for this chapter. Enjoy.

Connor wakes up after way too little for his own good, because of the heat – _now_ he gets why Markus goes around shirtless for most of his time on the human side of reality. His body temperature is almost literally level with a small heater.

He feels uncomfortable and slightly sweaty, but at least he gets to kiss Markus awake with little pecks to the cheek.

Mismatched eyes open halfway for him and the soft smile on the shadow-man’s face makes Connor wonder how anyone could ever be scared of him. “Hey there. Too hot?”

They both know he’s asking about temperature, but there’s a thinly veiled mischief in his voice that is unmistakable and has Connor rolling his eyes. “Pun not intended?”

“How long have you known me?”

Neither can hold back a little laugh, and Connor playfully shoves Markus away from him.

“Alright, get the hell out of my bed.” He says blinking at the clock reading 8:34 am on his nightstand, “And go get some real rest, you hear me?”

Markus leans forward to get at least one kiss.

“I will. Meet up tonight to cross-reference your father’s files and our case?”

“Sure thing. I’ll ask him everything I can.”

…he will definitely do that. _After_ he sleeps in.

Markus leaves his newly found boyfriend with a smile and a caress to the forehead.

 

It’s well past ten when Connor wakes again, to his cellphone ringing.

_«_ _Finally! I’d almost thought I was… interrupting._ _»_

Getting up still somewhat sluggishly from his bed, Connor chuckles. “Yeah, I wish. Apparently, you’re not the only gentleman around.”

 _«_ _Didn’t ask. Don’t wanna know._ _»_ Hank’s voice is a calculated deadpan, but it’s obvious to his son he’s trying not to laugh. Or cringe. Possibly both. _«_ _Listen, I’m finishing up a few things at the station but I can meet you on my lunchbreak._ _»_

This is the moment Lieutenant Hank Anderson actually risks his job to help his son’s interdimensional boyfriend on a paranormal investigation. Good heavens, just thinking it is a mouthful.

Connor really hopes they can avoid fucking it up. Lord knows it’s already looking bad that the feds are involved and still haven’t turned up anything concrete.

“Chicken feed?”

_«_ _Bring your laptop._ _»_

Hank is already at his favorite almost-table eating a burger and sipping pineapple soda when Connor reaches him— he has no files with him, no visible papers, no backpack or device to speak of, and makes no effort to acknowledge his son.

So he’s worried that someone might be watching them. This is bad.

Connor plays along, orders a burger and a soft drink for himself, and _then_ joins his father.

“Hey, kiddo.” Hank greets him, nodding in his bag’s direction. “That it?”

He is confused, but then again his father has roughly two decades of experience so who is he to question it? “Um… yeah.”

“Alright, let’s see what you’re having problems with.”

Ah, smart. If someone is hiding around here with a listening device, they’ll think the two of them met because of some fabricated computer trouble Connor is supposedly having… which is mildly bullshit, considering it’s usually _him_ helping Hank out with unruly devices, but whatever works. Connor puts his laptop on the table space, boots it up and Hank surreptitiously hook a tiny USB drive to it.

Damn. Seeing him up close, he’s quite good at this detective shit.

The first file he opens is named “READ ME” with four exclamation point and a ‘for fuck’s sake’ in brackets.

_“I need to make this quick because I don’t know who could be looking over my shoulders._

_This goes deeper than I thought it would._

_I know nothing about souleaters, creatures or any of that bullshit, I’mma leave that to the pros, but one thing I can do is track down a lead._

_So I looked at this imagining a human perp behind it._

_Four cases, all with gruesome deaths._

_First one is a murder-suicide, second one is voluntary manslaughter, third is another murder and the fourth one is a home accident? Gimme a break. Someone is clearly pulling the string._

_So I tried connecting the dots between the victims. Which I was struggling to come to, until I tried looking at it from a different perspective: Markus said souleaters push at your psyche, that whenever someone dies by the hand of someone being infested the victims are actually two…_

_Which means that the ‘original’ victim on the first case is actually the one who swung the metaphorical knife._

_You’re a clever kid. Have a look at the reports and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”_

Connor glances sideways at his father, who just shrugs:

“See? There’s your problem, delete that shit, see if it goes better after.”

Doing as he’s told, Connor deletes the document and pulls up the reports, which Hank has compiled in chronological order, with a thorough description of every crime scene and every victim.

Some lines are highlighted over others.

Case number one, former Inspector General shoots his wife in a bout of rage during an argument, has a breakdown and then shoots himself.

The man’s name and surname tell Connor nothing, but it is curious how someone who worked for law enforcement for their entire life ends up going out as a murderer. He commits the fact to mind and skims over the rest of the file –the alleged gradual descent into madness, the shouting matches reportedly increasing in frequency and intensity over the months, until something pushed it too far and it ended in tragedy.

Case number two: two brothers fight over a monetary dispute because one of them needed money after wrecking his car, the first one refuses, the fight escalates and they come to blows, until one of the two men ends up beaten to death with a wrench. According to the official reports, the perpetrator didn’t resist when the police arrived, confessed to the crime but insisted it was an accident, that he almost blacked out and he didn’t realize he was killing his brother.

Unfortunately, despite the victim’s past as a decorated federal agent, the perpetrator had a history of trouble with addiction, mental illness, and a few other charges that his brother had tried very hard to keep on the down low, so no one really believed him.

Tragic. And very likely what got the FBI involved in this, considering how little time passed between the two cases and how both involved someone who worked for the government.

Connor is indeed starting to see a pattern, especially once his eyes flick over to case number three.

This time, a government official is the perpetrator, rather than the victim. Another case of domestic violence gone too far.

“See, this here? This thing is funny, because _this_ little piggy was supposed to take the place of little piggy number one.”

Hank’s words cut through Connor’s mind like a knife. A convicted murderer cannot occupy a government position, and this is two in a row for the same role. If there really is a third party behind all this, they’re… unleashing souleaters to empty the seat for a high-paying job?!

Who could be _that_ much of a dick?

Connor moves on to case number four. The death was dismissed as accidental, blunt trauma to the head, that the victim cracked open against a wall. The woman’s teenage son, still in shock, reported that she did that to herself, crying for help the whole time –for someone to ‘make the whispers stop’.

Apparently, the lady didn’t have the easiest of relationship with her son and wouldn’t win mother of the year anytime soon… but, still according to the son’s witness account, she yelled at him to get out and away from here, because the ‘voices’ were suggesting his death as a solution to all their problems… but she didn’t want to murder her own son, so even though she was powerless to stop the voices, she did the only thing she could think of to stop herself.

…Idly, Connor wonders if the lady had to wear special pants, to accommodate balls that big. The souleater’s ‘whispers’ very likely had been persecuting her for months, exacerbating her relationship with her son to impossible levels, and still, when push came to shove, she didn’t choose murder.

But however horrible and tragic that is, it’s not what catches Connor’s attention.

With a tremble in his voice he wouldn’t admit to, Connor asks: “Was she… next in line?”

The look on Hank’s face says it all. Connor disconnects and pockets the drive, closing down his laptop.

If Hank was worried about being followed and/or spied on, the DPD station must be crawling with feds for the case, and he doesn’t know who to trust –so clearly, he trusts no one.

“Do you have any… suspects?”

His father shakes his head. “I got nothing concrete, and Lord knows I have no proof yet, but I do have a few hypotheses. I’ll see you after my shift and we can brainstorm with your pals, alright?”

Shit, they’re really doing this. “I’ll tell North and the guys. You’ll get to meet the whole gang.”

“Oh, goodie.” Hank rolls his eyes at his son, but ultimately smiles. “Oh, before I forget! I’ll be at your place, but I can't stay any later than eight, I got a, uh… thing.”

It honestly warms Connor’s heart that Hank would be self-conscious to tell _him_ about having a date. “Go get her, Casanova.”

“Fuck off.”

Honestly, Hank could lighten up some –Veronika is nothing if not kind and Connor would have no problems going from ‘Auntie V’ to ‘stepmom’. He’ll have to make sure to point that out sometime soon.

 

“Enjoying the day out, Anderson?”

Hank never felt such a big urge to punch someone as he’s feeling now. Ever since this whole investigation started, special agent asshole has been a constant thorn in his side. Perkins loves the cameras way too much for someone who’s supposed to focus on finding and eliminating threats; and he seems to think he owns whatever place he drags his ass in.

“Well. You know how it is, Perkins.” He says, not bothering to mask his sarcasm, “Some of us have families, and people who _actually_ love us, to spend our lunch break with. It must be a difficult concept for you to grasp.”

The FBI agent doesn’t seem to bite, but his reply still makes the small hairs on the back of Hank’s neck rise:

“Right, right… family, loved ones… things to lose.”

It’s not an outright confession, but Hank will be damned if that doesn’t put Richard Perkins right in the ‘suspicious’ pile. When your job is to track down and catch criminals, possibly before they can hurt anyone else, you learn to rely a lot on instinct, and right now Hank’s instinct is telling him to finish his shift, keep his head down and get the _hell_ out of the station.

He feels bad to depend on a bunch of kids for this, but it’s probably for the best to leave this particular operation to the pros.

 

Connor’s apartment is probably not made to hold eight or nine people, and poor Luther has to slouch to avoid head-butting the ceiling, but it was important to catch everyone up, and neither the girls nor Simon would agree to being left in the dark.

“So that’s everything we know up to now.”

North nods from where she’s leaning against the living room wall.

“I’ve asked discreetly with my friend in forensics, it all checks out. She says no way that last death was accidental.” At Connor’s shocked expression, she shrugs. “What? We’re _both_ training to be in the force, might as well take advantage of all our connections.”

Really, he should have known she wouldn’t settle for anything less than taking whatever action she can.

“Hold that thought.” Connor says as soon as he hears the knocks at the door.

“Alright, Justice League, what’d I miss?”

Seeing Markus snap slightly at attention whenever his father enters a room will never stop being funny to Connor –he wants to make a good impression so bad… well, at least he knows why, now.

“Nothing much, just a recap so we’re all on the same page.” He assures, making space for Hank to sit on the couch beside him, while Markus stays at his other side.

“Sure, we didn’t come empty-handed.” Luther says at one point, while Lucy steps forward to politely ask Connor to turn over the laptop so she can use it to load up a few pages while he speaks: “The souleater responsible for the last death has been caught and killed, but not by one of us: Lucy went to investigate the scene, and this is all she was able to find…”

It’s a traffic camera just outside the house where the death took place. A car is parked on the road side, the driver still inside, seemingly waiting for something— then the screen starts to fizzle out a bit, possibly reacting to the souleater’s presence within the camera even though nothing is visible except for a vague, smoky sort of silhouette. That’s when the car’s driver shoots out of it and the camera feed fizzles out again, except for a moment of clarity where the driver quickly boards his car again, holding something in his right hand.

Hank is the first to react: “…son of a bitch!”

The surprise and confusion are understandable, and none of the others hold it against him.

“What is that?” Connor asks, “A knife?”

“Yes and no. It’s a tourmaline blade.” Markus corrects, eyes not wavering from the screen.

“Tourmaline like the mineral?”

Markus nods, still not looking at anything other than the feed. “The crystal’s cleansing properties work wonders on breaking down corrupted shadow essence. I’m much more concerned about his face.”

“His face?” Connor parrots for a moment, before turning his attention back to the screen to notice exactly what’s wrong with the mystery souleater hunter’s face: he doesn’t have one.

There’s two vaguely eye-shaped indentations where a person’s eyes would be, but other than that, the stranger has no distinguishable features –no nose, mouth or hair.

“Jesus, what is that?” Simon is the first to ask –he always was a bit more easily impressionable than the others, “I mean… we’re all used to weird but… what?”

Lucy stops the feed with a sigh. It hasn’t been brought up by the DPD because for all intents and purposes it’s just a man sitting in a parked car, getting up to walk around it briefly, and then getting back in –anyone in normal circumstances would deem it irrelevant and not look at it too closely. Knowing what they know, it was relatively easy for Lucy to spot this once Luther procured her access –he had to call in a few favors from the people he works with on this side of the Veil, but it’s good to have friends in surveillance.

“What you just saw is the basic state of a shapeshifter.” She explains, “Now, contrary to pop-culture shapeshifters, they have no real interest in changing _into_ other people and taking their places. A shifter usually uses their primary characteristic to draw advantage from the form they shift into— get cheetah legs if they want to run fast or crocodile skin to take a hit that would normally hurt them… they have limitations depending on their body weight and overall mass, but they’re a pretty resourceful bunch.”

Kara hums thoughtfully at that. “Could this guy be your puppeteer? The one controlling the souleaters and then disposing of them to get rid of the evidence?”

“It’s definitely a possibility.” Luther agrees, “Either that, or he’s a rogue going after souleaters on their own.”

“Regardless of which, we’re gonna have to watch for them, and maybe try to locate them.” Josh adds, one arm still around Simon’s shoulders in silent comfort, “If they _are_ our perp, they’re clearly dangerous. If they aren’t… they’re still out there butchering souleaters with a _shiv_.”

“I’ll be goddamned…” Hank murmurs, shaking his head. “I can… try and have someone run the plates. Though it could be a bust if the car is stolen. Anyone recognize anything about the guy?”

There’s a collective shake of heads, until Markus points at the screen again. “He’s wearing a ring; it’s the only recognizable thing about him. Or them.”

The feed quality is too bad to notice any distinguishing features on the ring –Connor wagers the only reason Markus noticed at all is because of his incredibly good eyesight– but now that he’s paying attention, it almost looks like one of those shitty ‘mood rings’ that were popular back when he went to high school.

Yeah, that’s probably not going to be a great help.

“Well, it’s better than nothing.” Hank finally declares, slapping his own knees as he gets up, “I’ll get someone on those plates first thing tomorrow, you guys do your thing and see if anyone on your side can id this fucker.”

“Of course, Lieutenant.” Markus gets up alongside Connor to see him out, “Enjoy your date.”

Hank looks briefly from Markus to Connor and back. Of _course_ Connor would tell him. “…Shut up.”

Connor is still laughing when he closes the door. “Oh, he loves you already.”

“Does he? I get the feeling that he could punch me sometimes.” The shadow-man scratches sheepishly at the back of his head, and Connor can’t resist hugging him in the middle of his doorway.

“He probably could, but that’s just the way he works. He’s a tough love kind of guy.” Still, Connor’s touched that Markus would at all worry about Hank liking him, and he kisses him for the dedication.

From the living room, Josh calls out: “Wait hold on, when did _that_ happen?!”

“Oh shut up, like you’ve been giving me a live feed of your ass pining after Simon?” Markus’ protest makes all the others laugh, and it almost redoubles when Luther voices one small objection:

“I mean… he kind of did.”

True enough, Josh and Simon are pretty much made to be together: neither has ever been able to shut up about the other.

North theatrically rolls her eyes.

“My God, you guys are painful to listen to.” She playfully baps Kara on one shoulder, “Except you, Kara, you knew what you wanted and went right for it. Mad props to you.”

“I mean, nowadays is more of a what we _both_ want thing, but… yeah. It feels good to be a legend.” Sweet, petite, shy-looking Kara never fails to deliver her bombs.

Just this once, Connor borrows his father’s choice of words: “Didn’t ask, don’t wanna know.”

Lucy chuckles and masks one word in a cough: “Cowards.”

“Wait, are we still making witticisms about the size of my dick? If it’s such a topic of interest I can whip it out and solve the mystery.”

“Didn’t ask, _don’t wanna know_.” Connor repeats, at a higher volume, unsure of how okay it is to make size jokes with a Giant, however much of a good sport about the whole thing Luther is. “Plus, he’s got a point guys, come on.”

They all have a last chuckle about it, but there is a limit to how funny the same joke can be, and it gets subsequently dropped in favor of returning to more serious matters.

Identifying the shifter and getting to the bottom of Hank’s lead.

With the Lieutenant running the plates and them searching around their network for any missing shifters that could line up with the start of the deaths, there’s really not much else to do for now, and the guys go their separate ways.

Finally alone with Markus, Connor just flops down on his couch.

“Well, that was eventful.”

The shadow-man walks to his side and sighs gently. “Let’s check your head before you turn in for the night.”

“Hold on! Who says I’m turning in for the night?” Connor doesn’t protest when the other takes his hand to lead both of them to the bathroom and take off the band-aid from his head to check the wound one last time, but he does object to the idea of mandatory bedtime. “I’d say the night is plenty young for just the two of us.”

Markus doesn’t answer him just yet, opting instead for giving the wound a good once-over and trying to remember what Leo taught him. “Well, it doesn’t look like you need stitches and it’s best if we let it breathe now… have you been feeling dizzy? Nauseous? Ears ringing?”

Connor shakes his head ‘no’ at each question and eventually presses the tips of his fingers to Markus’ lips to stop him. “Markus. It’s been a full day. I’m ok.”

“Still… humor me and take it easy a while more.” Markus can’t help but lean into the touch when Connor’s hand shifts to caress his cheek, and the human chuckles.

“Is having a doctor for a brother the reason for you being such a worrywart?”

Even with his eyes closed and his arms unconsciously snaking around Connor’s waist, Markus’ reply is instant: “Is having a cop for a dad the reason for you being such a reckless idiot?”

He’s got a point there.

“Touché.” Connor relents, stepping backwards out of the bathroom and making Markus follow, out of their need to keep their hands on each other. “Still… I promise I’m all better.”

“Are you sneakily trying to drag me to the bedroom?”

Hank was right; he’s not slick in the slightest. Still, he wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t act like a complete little shit: “…am I succeeding?”

Markus huffs but lets Connor carry the both of them to the bedroom. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”

“Funny, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing from the very first day you popped up _shirtless_ in my apartment.”

Markus’ ego can’t help but preen at the statement, and the chuckle that bubbles up in his chest promptly gets swallowed by Connor’s mouth as they meet halfway into a kiss.

This time, Markus makes sure to take his time with exploring his boyfriend’s all too willing mouth; and when he pulls away, giving the tiniest little bite to Connor’s lower lip, he has to hold back laughter when the human speaks again.

“Eddie Brock, eat your heart out.”

“Oh you have seen nothing yet.” He follows along when Connor drags him by the wrist onto the bed, doesn’t need to be asked twice to happily plop down on the mattress and resume kissing— he lets out tiny gasps when Connor starts playing with one of his piercings like the tease he is, but goes along with it because the feeling of Connor’s cool hands all over his comparatively much warmer body is nothing short of heaven… it’s only when one of said hands dips below the belt to palm at his crotch that Markus grabs Connor by the wrists to slow him down.

“Wait—”

Connor doesn’t push it, but he does look up at him with confused eyes. “Do you want to stop?”

“Far from it…” Markus assures with his best smile, “But we probably should do this the other way around, at least for now.”

That’s intriguing. Connor honestly would not mind either way, but Markus’ whole ‘bad boy’ looks give off a certain vibe… it might be a generalization, but still, Connor would definitely not be opposed to being pounded into the floor. “Are you sure? I’m ok, really—”

“It’s not that, I, uh… I don’t want you to hurt yourself…”

It takes a second for the penny to drop. The words ‘monster dick’ briefly flash through Connor’s mind and all his brain can come up with is: “…Oh.”

He doesn’t know whether to be touched that Markus cares so much about his well-being or intrigued at the notion that Markus seriously thinks he could ‘break’ Connor. Intrigue wins out for a moment and he licks his lips with a deep breath –the idea is definitely making is pants feel tighter, but still… this is Markus. Connor briefly stops what he was doing with his hands to bring them both up at the sides of Markus’ face.

“We don’t have to go all the way if you don’t want to.”

Markus heaves a deep breath of his own. “Oh, I want to… jeez, Connor I’ve wanted this for like five years now… just… humor me and take it slow?”

The unknowing confession makes it impossible for Connor to hold back his smile and he leans up to kiss the other’s lips again. “Deal.”

Markus then helps Connor out of his t-shirt and they switch positions on the bed. The shadow-man lays down in a way that is comfortable on his lower spine and extends his tail to the side, both to keep it out of the way –for the moment– and to have full mobility of it later.

Like it often happens when long overdue tension is released, they immediately gravitate back to each other, hands caressing and scouring every inch of skin they can.

Connor has _dreamed_ of this moment. And now it’s finally happening.

Markus’ hands are resting firmly on his ass at the moment, which is why he jumps slightly when he feels something brush the side of his face gently, until he realizes what it is: Markus’ tail.

“Told you it’s just another limb.”

Right. Markus has full control of the appendage and, judging by the soft movement against his face, then behind his neck and down his shoulders, he _definitely_ knows how to exercise that control.

Oh, boy.

Markus _definitely_ noticed the stuttering in his breath, if the toothy grin is anything to go by. He presses his hands down on Connor’s ass so they grind together more and rips an outright moan from his mouth.

“Alright I don’t care what goes where but I need you naked because this is bullshit.”

Satisfied once Markus nods his assent, Connor sits back just slightly to rummage in his bedside drawer briefly, and once he has what he needs he focuses his gaze back on Markus –at first, he just helps the other tug his trousers away from his legs and toss them aside; then he gets a full view of Markus’ body and, well.

Maybe he does have a point. Aside from the size itself, which would already be impressive, Markus’ cock looks visibly ridged at the sides with smaller ribs along the underside –Connor still has half a mind that he could very much take it, but he’d probably need a whole lot of lube, at least the first few times, to get used to it.

“God it’s so fucking unfair, you have no idea how much I want you in me.” He jokingly complains, descending on Markus again to kiss him and then mouth little kisses and bites down his neck and collarbones, eventually finding one of Markus’ piercing to tease at with his tongue and enjoying the way it nearly makes the shadow-man arch clean off the mattress, while in turn Markus tries to free him from his pants as well.

With a low chuckle that sends shivers down Connor’s spine, Markus offers one particular piece of information: “I mean… that can still be arranged.”

Connor is only confused for a moment, before Markus’ tail languidly caresses down his lower back and ‘accidentally’ brushes between his buttocks.

“Oh, sweet mother of God.” Connor’s voice trembles at being stimulated by multiple sources— one of Markus’ hands is comfortably resting on his ass, the other one has gently encircled is dick to work him up slowly, _and_ the goddamn tail is just behind him, touching and teasing but doing nothing more yet.

He actually has to brace one hand on Markus’ chest while he tries to open the condom wrapper with the other –eventually, Markus is merciful enough to stop being a tease and help him slip it on. He nods when Connor asks if he wants further lubrication, but instead of letting Connor prepare him he swipes at the human’s fingers with the very end of his tail.

Connor had already realized what Markus offered, but that moment is when it finally sinks into his mind that it’s _actually_ happening.

“You’re going to ruin me for anyone else, aren’t you?” He asks, as he lines himself up, making Markus smirk at him with the familiar mischief he loves so much.

“Not just yet. We’re taking it slow, remember?”

Two can play this game. Connor keeps eye-contact while slowly easing himself in, one hand resting firmly on Markus’ shoulder. “For me, or for yourself?”

“You did _not_ just say that.” Markus remarks, bringing up his legs to wrap around Connor’s thighs.

The human’s answer is a quick lip bite and a wink. “I believe I just did.”

“Bring it.”

Some things never change. They’re still constantly challenging each other to see who can get more of a reaction. It sends a mixed rush of both fondness and excitement trough Connor, as he starts moving, slowly at first but picking up speed soon enough.

Markus is content to let him set the pace and bask in his ministrations –Connor finds the sensitive spots on his skin easily enough, and makes sure to leave bite marks on most of them. It becomes evident enough how much the shadow-man is enjoying himself by the death grip of his right hand behind the nape of Connor’s neck and the way his left one is pawing almost helplessly at his back… Markus’ nails are quite sharp and Connor can definitely _feel_ the scratches that will be there in the morning, but he doesn’t care.

At one point, he audibly gasps against Markus’ cheekbone; because he feels the other’s tongue lap gently at his neck from a distance that is normally not humanly possible.

Endless possibilities race through his mind for the future, and he can barely keep it together.

Then Markus, clearly more in control than what it looked like, decides to up the ante and slowly, agonizingly slowly, starts teasing at Connor’s entrance with the tip of his tail.

“Fuck, _Markus_ …”

Markus hums softly and leans up to leave small kisses along Connor’s cheekbones. “Shhh, I’ve got you… keep going.”

In his surprise, Connor had almost completely stopped moving inside of Markus— he still needs a moment to get his bearings before continuing, what with topping and bottoming at the same time being a completely new and foreign sensation.

Not that he’s complaining. One of the reasons he takes the time to heave a few breaths is not to come undone right then and there, it’s _that_ good. Markus’ whole body is a warm embrace around him as he huffs and groans, making Connor hyperaware of every inch of skin in contact between them.

“That’s good… you’re so good… breathe with me…” Gently, Markus guides him back to thrusting back and forth, accompanying each movement with his tail inside Connor, going a little bit further at every push.

It becomes increasingly difficult for Connor to string coherent words together, and he start losing control and going faster and harder, enjoying how Markus’ legs tighten around him at the feeling, along with all the other simultaneous stimuli his body is receiving.

At one point, with his last shred of control, Markus whispers a request to Connor:

“Kiss me.”

Connor is all too happy to oblige, considering Markus’ tongue drives him absolutely nuts, and it’s what makes him come crashing down: he’s being pleasured from all directions simultaneously by the same one person –something he didn’t think physically possible, but that’s what always happens with Markus; everything is a goddamn adventure. Connor’s hips stutter in place and he pulls away with a gasp, trembling and with nothing in his mind except for the other’s name.

“Markus…”

The first reaction to the call is a sound halfway between a moan and a growl, before Markus finds his voice: “Don’t— don’t stop… I’m close…”

Knowing his high is coming to an end soon; Connor gives a few last frantic thrusts, as hard as Markus seems to like it, and helps him over the edge by working his length with his hands.

Markus arches up and comes under Connor’s hands with a low roar –and it’s not a euphemism, it nearly startles Connor out of his haze: it’s an actual roar, similar to what he would normally attribute to either a panther or an altogether mythical creature.

He’s still looking on mesmerized as Markus drops back down on the mattress, chest still heaving and head thrown back as his breath comes out in little huffs.

Sensing the stunned silence, Markus chuckles somewhat awkwardly.

“Did I scare you?” he asks, pulling his tail out of Connor as gently as he possibly can.

Connor shudders slightly while it happens, but shakes his head and pulls himself out just as carefully.

“Open your eyes.” He whispers instead, reaching out a hand to stroke Markus’ cheek.

Mismatched green and blue look up at him and Connor laughs softly: “ _All_ of your eyes.”

Amethyst and gold join in, blinking a few times to adapt to the light, however dim it is for human eyes, and Connor finally sinks to the side, nestling himself in Markus’ embrace. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.”

Markus is still coming down from cloud nine, which is probably why it takes him so long to notice:

“You’re bleeding.”

Poking his tongue out to lick at his lower lip, Connor tastes copper— he must have nicked himself on Markus’ teeth in that one last crazed kiss. For the life of him, he cannot regret even one second of it.

“Worth it.” He solemnly declares, with a mischievous grin of his own. “And I’m _so_ working my way up to taking you, if I have to die trying.”

That sends Markus right into giggles.

“I promise you, it’s not that bad.” The shadow-man assures, nudging Connor a bit with his shoulder. “Quick shower and then sleep?”

“You’ll be gone when I wake up…”

Markus meets his eyes with a nod and a sigh. “I can stay until you fall asleep.”

Connor lets his boyfriend guide him back to the bathroom to quickly wash up together with minimal sulking, and it’s not long before Connor is in his pjs and in bed with Markus lying beside him on top of the covers with his trousers back on.

“Stop by later in the evening?” the human asks, big brown doe eyes impossible to refuse, and Markus kisses his forehead in assent.

“Of course. You’ll have to tell me how Hank’s date goes.”

They laugh together thinking back to that, then Connor snuggles up to Markus enough to nuzzle his neck one more time. “Don’t make me wait too long.”

He’s lulled to sleep by the words that have always made his nights feel better:

“I’ll always come back for you.”

 

Come morning, Connor wakes up to a lot of lingering sensations and he appreciates the patchwork of scratches and bites Markus left on him with a relaxed smirk. However weird his life has become lately, one thing is certain for Connor: he wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s got his dearest friend back, they took it to the next level, he’s learning and discovering things ordinary people don’t even dream of… And he can’t wait until he can make fun of his old man some more about his ‘date’.

Hopefully Hank will call sometime soon this morning, to distract him a bit from missing Markus.

Or maybe it’s best if he doesn’t, it might mean he got lucky with Veronika and they’re enjoying some time together.

Shit, now Connor is worried about jinxing it.

Well, he’ll have to wait and see.


	9. Desharik

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Markus has been in this line of work way too long to believe in coincidences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I didn't even put a summary or notes in this yesterday evening I was so tired from my stupid job -they had this fancy "make up event" that made us all do bullshit overtime.
> 
> Either way.  
> Shit's going down.
> 
> There's finally a use for Gavin in this story -(which is more than we can say from the original story lol).  
> Honestly, I pulled the whole Desharik thing outta my ass but I got plans for that too.
> 
> Enjoy. ♥ ♥ ♥

Connor throws himself into his training with renewed vigor.

They’re on anti-riot protocol and operations, week 6 of 11, and a few of them even have a group chat going on— it started with the best intentions of being about the training and any announcements related, but it degenerated into memes pretty fast.

If nothing else, at least North and him made a few friendly acquaintances.

“God _damn_ , Anderson!” one of said acquaintances exclaims, as they’re all getting changed in the locker rooms, upon noticing the many faint scratches running along his shoulder blades and hips in a very tell-tale pattern, “On which side of _whose_ bed did you wake up this morning?”

Holding back a smirk, Connor thinks of what North would have to say –she already teased him plenty, but the guys’ reactions are fucking golden: apparently, they didn’t think the pretty-boy with a clean shaven face had it in him to get a little rough.

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell, Miller.”

The other trainee shoves him playfully. “Oh, come on! You clearly did a lot more than just kissing, surely you can tell at least a little?”

The curiosity only makes him laugh more.

“I suppose I could… but I don’t want any competition to come for my boyfriend.” He says instead of answering, shooting a wink at his colleague, “So just use your imagination, It’s never gonna match up to the real thing anyway.”

Miller stares for a moment before resigning himself to be left hanging and shaking his head.

As soon as they’re back in shared space, though, he seeks out North and nudges her elbow while pointing at Connor:

“Can you believe this guy? He comes in looking like he wrestled a wild cat and won’t tell us a thing!”

North shares a look with Connor, who just shrugs, and grins at Miller.

“I guess it sucks to be you. I got all the details.”

Well, not _all_ the details, but enough to extrapolate the rest. Their fellow trainee gasps in mock offense.

“What? Come on!”

Her grin only grows wider. “The perks of being _The Best Friend_.”

Watching them bicker, Connor would normally be slightly annoyed about people gossiping so blatantly about his sex life while he’s in the room, but he knows they mean nothing by it and he’s just in too much of a good mood.

He recalls early morning, just after closing a phone call with a very uncomfortable Hank who apparently is more of a gentleman than he or Markus will ever be. He dialed for Simon almost immediately after, and it went something along the lines of:

«Dude.»

«I know.»

«He was just so—»

«I know, Connor.»

«And then he did this thing with—»

«Yeah.»

«But _shit_ , have you even seen—»

«Connor! I _know_. Seriously.»

«…You brave son of a bitch.»

«Trust me… it’s worth it.»

 

He still chuckles at the thought and looks forward to seeing Markus later tonight— they have lots of investigative work to do, but Connor also has a lot of lost time to make up for and intends to make full use of the time they have now.

None of them have found much of anything in relation to the mysterious shifter yet, other than Luther confirming that the localized explosion that took place not too far and almost simultaneously with the third incident was actually an energy surge from the death of the souleater responsible, later dismissed as an ‘electrical failure’.

However little, this does give them new information: they had miscalculated the number of souleaters involved –which also means someone is _definitely_ pulling the strings from this side, human or not: such a high number of souleaters prowling around the same hunting grounds would tear each other apart in a pretty conspicuous way over territory, by now, so they’re either scared or bound.

Lucy bets good money on the second.

Connor and North finish the rest of their class discussing it, but without more input they don’t have anything new to go on.

On his way home, though, he receives a text from his father:

 _»_ _stop by before you get to your place. Veronika made snacks._

It’s good to see Hank finally coming back out of his shell and giving himself a second chance at happiness. Back when Connor was a child, the man tried his best not to let his son think that his mother just up and left because she didn’t love either of them; but you can only fool a child for so long, and that time is further reduced when the child in question is as inquisitive and smart as Connor grew up to be.

The way Connor sees it, they’ve both been deprived of a side of love that was… not strictly necessary, since the two of them managed just fine all these years, but it’s still nice to find.

Especially for Hank: Connor had his dad there for him every step of the way, and was well taken care of— Hank could only count on himself, at least until Connor grew old enough to understand and take care of his father in return.

Ever since mustering up the courage to talk to Veronika, Hank is a man reborn –it’s too bad that all these things are happening hand in hand with a gruesome string of interdimensional murders, but hey, that just means he’ll fight twice as hard to protect the people he loves.

“Connor!” Veronika’s accented voice compliments her smile well, her face is almost completely healed and she doesn’t look scared anymore. “Let me look at you! I haven’t had chance to tell you, but you grew so much! Very handsome!”

He lets her hug him and pats her gently on the shoulders. “Thanks, Auntie Vee.”

The term of endearment rolls off his lips almost without him noticing, but Veronika looks at him in a mixture of surprise and elation.

“Come, come!” she urges on, “I made Ringó Jancsi chocolate cake, your favorite!”

Connor will not admit it to a living soul, but the thought that this lady cared to remember his favorite chocolate dessert for however many years she’s known him, even without seeing him all that often, nearly has him in tears –it’s a very close thing, especially when Veronika sits him down at the coffee table and pats his cheek affectionately before cutting a very generous serving for him.

“It’s been such long time since I could do this for someone who actually appreciates it…” there’s a hint of wistfulness in her voice, but she’s clearly much happier now. “Eat, tell me how it is.”

Connor died and is now in chocolate heaven. It’s absolutely, mind-bogglingly delicious.

“It’s amazing, Auntie Vee, thanks.”

So much so that he nearly misses the next question, thrown out with a cheeky smile:

“So how is your boyfriend? The very handsome one with the tail and the bright eyes?”

Connor promptly chokes on the pastry, feeling only marginally better when he realizes his father looks just as shocked as he is.

“I— I’m sorry, _what_?!”

To her credit, Veronika speaks in a perfectly calm voice:

“The young man who fought so well to save me and free Dave, even if he didn’t deserve it.”

“You… remember that?”

Veronika’s gentle expression is disarming as she lifts her hand to Connor’s cheek again. “Dave had always been mean and violent. But that other night… I thought I was going to die for sure. I doubt I could forget if I tried.”

On one hand, he could make a last ditch attempt of trying to convince her that she was just seeing things out of fear and shock; but looking at her… Connor can tell Veronika is a woman with a proper head on her shoulders, and knows exactly what she saw.

He sighs. "This will be hard to explain, Auntie Vee... and I need you to promise you won't tell anyone..."

They don't tell Veronika about the whole souleater murder rampage, but Connor does give her the short and sweet of finding a 'monster' under his bed and falling in love with him.

She absolutely adores it, and shares folk tales about Creatures from her Country.

 

On his way home, he tries contacting Markus— it's so weird to him that he's making a phone call to a crystal, but if it works it works.

"Are you going to be mad at me if I tell you my future step-mom saw you and remembers you?"

The response is an affectionate chuckle, warming Connor's heart even as it carries a slight distortion.

 _«Nah. When I filled in my report I mentioned cloaking and uncloaking right under the victim's nose... it's a collateral we predicted.»_ Markus explains, _«I took the liberty of vouching for her. She's cool.»_

That's... a big chance to take on someone he didn't know; and yet the shadow-man sounds very sure of it. Not for the first time, Connor wonder exactly how big Markus' heart can be.

"She is thankful, and she thinks you're very handsome. The real you."

More of the knowing laughter that shoots warmth right down his spine.

_«Well. I'll have to thank her in person one of these days.»_

"I'm sure it would make her day." Connor is relieved that he didn't compromise Markus any more than he already had, but his boyfriend is already changing gears:

_«I'll be at your place in a few hours -Lucy pulled some strings and got us useful equipment... in the meantime ask your father what became of the plate he had someone running for the shifter's car. I have a theory, but need proof.»_

Right. The plates on the car in the recording they saw. Connor has a few theories of his own, but it's a very common model –it could be a coincidence.

When the time comes, Markus comes out of the shadow his bedroom door projects on the opposite wall, making Connor grin at him.

"Look at you, finally learning after twenty-some years."

The shadow-man just kisses him in greeting, using just enough of his elongated, prehensile tongue to render Connor speechless.

"Look at you, being a smartass." He whispers against the human's lips when he pulls away. "I have a present for you."

Connor is still kind of trying to chase his lips to prolong the kiss while Markus gets something out of his pocket, so he is more than a little surprised when a sheathed knife is placed into his hands.

Curiously, he unsheathes the weapon halfway, to discover the blade is purple with black wisps and looks... crystalized.

"Is this...?"

"An amethyst-obsidian alloy knife."

"You can make alloys out of crystals?"

Markus smirks at him. "Not on this side of the Veil. Though, to be fair, it doesn't have much uses except against souleaters specifically."

"Then why are you giving this to me?" Connor asks, confused, "I can't see them until they choose to solidify—"

"Well... you couldn't. Now you will be able to."

There's definitely something Markus isn't telling him, here.

"Because of the knife?"

The shadow-man shakes his head. "Your body and mind are more in tune with the Veil after we, uh... shared fluids. So now your eyes will pick up things they couldn't before."

"Ooh..." It takes a moment to fully register. " _Oh_."

"Yeah."

Well, that's certainly informative _and_ useful, if a bit embarrassing to explain to his father when they all meet up.

Luther comes to them with the full report of the day the explosion and tire tracks matching the vehicle Hank's already running plates for... the feds are still denying third party or insider interference, aside for having made a bland claim about an 'internal investigation'. It's likely that whoever is doing this will try to find a scapegoat and push them in the FBI's hands.

Lucy looks tired, she's been pulling long hours to try and sift through all the records of shifters naturalized on this side of the Veil... obviously, there are many cases, more than a few of which featuring a _Desharik_.

North is the one to ask the obvious question:

"What's a Desharik?"

"It's the shadow-realm equivalent of a _John Doe_." Lucy explains, letting the tentacles adorning her head droop slightly while stiflig a yawn, "Whenever someone on our side of the Veil dies or disappears and no one knows their name, we call them Desharik."

"Does it have a particular meaning?" Simon asks curiously.

Josh, who's just by the blonde's side and resting his head on Simon's shoulder, shrugs a little.

"No, it's a made up word. It has no other meaning outside of the one we use in these cases."

Connor is both amused and impressed.

"Smart." He comments –after all, if the word is made up they don't run the risk of ever coming across someone whose actual name was Desharik, while Connor would hazard guessing that there are at least a few actual John Does. And Desharik has the advantage of being gender-neutral.

Lucy arches her back slightly in a stretch.

"Either way. I've had a small team narrow it down to 5 or 6 likely candidates, based on rough age of the shifter, localization and a possible motive for going vigilante."

 

It's better than having no clue at all, and Hank should be here soon with the results from running the car plates. If Lucy managed to trace back some information on the Deshariks this side of the Veil, they might actually get a match.

He's actually taking a long time, now that Connor realizes, it's way past the end of his father's shift and—luckily, he doesn't really have the time to grow worried, because as soon as that thought comes up an energetic knock at his apartment door dispels it.

Connor doesn't hide his breath of relief at seeing Hank's face.

"How nice of you to finally join us." He teases instead.

"Shut up." Hank grumbles slightly, following his son into the living room. "I checked the data twice to make sure it was legit, and..."

He trails off, meeting Lucy's eyes and offering a sheepishly polite nod— lord, the sight of these guys never gets old, but the Eldritch-looking lady has this aura about her, that almost _demands_ deference. Then again, Markus himself carries a quiet but authoritarian countenance that he definitely gets from his father, and to a point so does Josh –he guesses it's the mysterious, glowy eyes- then there's the big guy, Luther... as far as Hank knows, he's the kindest man to ever walk either side of the Veil, but good God he looks like he could crush you skull one-handed. And yet he's undeniably a big softie, cradling his girlfriend in his lap and absently brushing a hand through her hair.

Realizing he's staring, Hank clears his voice.

"Um. 'Scuse me." He mutters, getting the copies he made from the station out of their envelope. "The good news is that the car hasn't been reported stolen, so it's almost 100% that our shifter is the owner..."

Connor knows that tone. "And the bad news?"

"Well, not so much bad news as it is _weird_ news."

Markus is already hugging Connor from behind by now so it's no effort to look over his shoulder and read the report.

He feels the other's body stiffen in surprise and tries to recall why the name sounds familiar...

_"I know what you are."_

He jolts in surprise as well, when that particular memory surfaces— that's why he knew the name: Gavin Reed is Connor's asshole ex!

That's... definitely weird, though probably not for the reasons Hank thinks. From their brief encounter, Markus got the definite impression that Gavin hated shadow-men; so why would he be 'helping' clean up souleaters, at the risk of his own life? Shifters don't have particularly combat-oriented abilities, unless trained to make the  most of them.

Then again, that's true for most creatures _and_ people. Markus himself relies much more on his training than anything else while in combat –shadow jumping, shadow cloaking and darkvision are mostly stealth, evasion and intelligence skills, though he and Josh do have a certain degree of innate strength and speed over a shifter.

He explains this much to Hank and Connor while Lucy looks the report over and confirm the presence of a potential shifter match in one of her files; and they're both even more confused, if possible: even while they were dating, Gavin wasn't exactly the most selfless of people, and Connor can honestly not see him risking his life to fight for a greater good.

To alleviate the tension, North nudges Connor with a chuckle:

"At least now we know why you even dated that jackass in the first place... you've always had a type."

"Oh my God, North!"

Everyone in the room knows she just called Connor out on his monster kink right there, but Kara just breaks into a warm smile:

"For what it's worth, I am very, very proud of you."

"Thanks, Kara, you're the best." He says, shooting a pretend glare at North as she sticks her tongue out at him, before returning to their topic: "We could try and confront Gavin unofficially, to avoid playing into the hands of our culprit. Markus and I could go alone."

It's probably not the safest course of action, but if Gavin doesn't know they're coming there's no reason to bust in guns blazing.

"Lucy and I could keep an eye on the feds and be on standby as Hank's back-up, should anything go sideways." Since it's pretty much obvious that Connor is the best choice to approach Gavin and Markus goes where he goes, Josh offers his help where it can be the most effective -and he earns a grateful glance from Connor, who will feel more at ease knowing someone with experience against souleaters will watch over his father.

Luther nods approvingly. "And in the meantime, if Lieutenant Anderson can provide a list of potential next victims to me, I can set up a fire-watch in the area and be on the lookout for energy surges."

Goddamn, Hank wishes he had a team like this for every case.

"Thanks. Appreciate it. I'll try and get that list to you through Connor by tomorrow."

Just then, Kara has a thought: "If we need easier and faster ways to reach each other, remotely or in person, I can move my shifts at the pharmacy around a bit -the lady at reception normally hates me, but she's not in charge."

"Same." Simon assures as well, "I mean, Josh already has my schedule practically memorized, but if anyone needs anything... we're here."

He doesn't say that he feels a bit useless and really wants to do anything he can to help. If the way Kara smiles at him is any indication, he's being less subtle than he thought he was -but unless someone starts drowning, there's not much a poolside lifeguard can do in any given context. Hence his slight frustration with things as they are.

They agree on trying to approach Gavin cautiously first while keeping an eye out for further souleater activity and eventually part ways.

 

The next day, Connor is honestly not ready to confront his ex about being a shapeshifter, and while he's glad to have Markus with him, it will make for one hell of an awkward meeting.

"You know, it makes sense now." Markus tells him in the car ride over, "Back at the arcade, when we shook hands, he tried to act all tough and ominous telling me he 'knew what I was'... I guess he thought I was  a souleater or close to becoming one, and that I was stalking an innocent human."

Said 'innocent' human's first instinct is to snort at that:

"That just goes to show how little he actually knows, about me or anyone else." He comments, briefly flicking his gaze to Markus but not taking his eyes off the road. "Though you should have told me."

"It didn't seem important at the time. Wasn't the first time a self-proclaimed souleater 'hunter' did that, and they're usually harmless..." As a shadow-man and a defender, Markus followed the best course of action. As a _boyfriend_... "But yeah, I probably should have told you."

It makes Connor smile. "Yeah. You remember when we were kids, saying we could tell each other anything?"

"Yes?"

"I want us to be like that as a couple, too. I don't care if we end up disagreeing or arguing, I never want us to stop talking."

Markus has a surge of warmth in his chest –Connor talks big about having hit the jackpot with him, but he counts himself just as lucky.

"Deal." Is all he's got to say to that, with a stupid, love-struck smile and a kiss on the cheek.

They reach Gavin's house easily enough, and Markus stays a bit to the side knowing the man will be much more likely to actually open the door if he only sees Connor.

The doorbell rings once. Twice. Three times.

"...Maybe he's just not home?" Markus himself doesn't believe it as he says it -despite being a perfectly legitimate hypothesis, he's been in this line of work way too long to believe in coincidences.

And as _coincidence_ would have it, Connor's cellphone rings— it's Hank.

"Answer. I'll go around back and see if I can shadow-jump around for clues."

Connor is already picking up while he nods.

"Dad?"

 _«Gotta make this quick, I'm probably being watched, but: the puppeteer knows. Gavin Reed has just been put forward as the primary suspect for the whole thing; they're tossing the words 'serial murderer' around!»_ Hank says, almost all in one breath, _«He's gonna be a scapegoat unless we find him and find whoever is responsible for this mess.»_

This is bad. Scratch that, this is terrible, but it gives them a huge hint: their souleater puppeteer is someone in the FBI, someone with enough clearance to override security and access Hank's terminal.

Connor swallows thickly. "Dad? Who put forward the suspect?"

_«Special agent Perkins, why?»_

There's no proof that it's him yet, but really, the one person who talked big with the media without putting any real effort in finding out the truth, who hung around the station making scathing remarks and casual threat and just generally being sketchy enough that Hank had already mentioned him as suspicious? What were the odds?

"Dad, listen to me. I want you to go to Fowler. Tell him you have a lead on the case, huge breakthrough, and that you need to get out right now." Connor says, just as he sees wisps of black filtering around from under the apartment's door -Markus will likely open it in a few seconds. "With any luck, uncertainty will be enough to have our puppeteer bite. Call me again once you're on the road."

_«Shit, this is serious. Alright, Will do.»_

Almost on cue, Markus opens the door from the inside and says what Connor was already expecting:

"Gone. He hasn't packed much but a drawer with a false bottom has been upturned. I'm guessing weapons."

"He's probably going for the man trying to frame him..."

"And playing right into his hands!" Markus finishes for him— Gavin must be keeping tabs on police communications somehow, and when Richard Perkins suddenly brought him forward as a suspect he must have felt cornered and sure that the man controlling the souleaters was trying to stop _him_ , personally.

The poor fucker always thought himself too important to figure he's simply being used.

This means they need to find him fast— he was a shitty boyfriend and is all around a dick, but he does not deserve to rot in jail for serial murder, or worse.

Because of Perkins, there's already an APB on Gavin and Hank is discreetly tracking it, but he runs into Lucy and Josh as he gets to his car and clues them in too as quickly as possible:

"I have to chase this, but you guys send an alert to whoever deals with this shit, and..." he lowers his gaze for a second before looking back up: "I'm meeting up with Connor anyway, they'll watch my back. If you two instead can go back and make sure Veronika is safe... you'd really do me a solid."

Lucy smiles knowingly at him.

"I will take North with me and personally see to her safety." She promises, before grabbing the pendant that projects her disguise and shutting it down, ducking quickly behind a shadowed corner and disappearing from sight.

Hank must be getting used to it, because he feels much more grateful than he is amazed or even just weirded out.

 

Perkins' threats had been generic and mostly empty, but the old Lieutenant can admit to himself that he's relieved to see his son and his very powerful, elite interdimensional military son-in-law to be.

"North told me you sent Lucy to watch over Veronika?" Connor greets him with a hushed tone and a squeeze of the shoulder.

At his nod, Markus returns the gesture: "Smart. Now everyone you care about that Perkins has access to is guarded by the Veil's forces."

"Way to make a fella feel special." Hank jokes, if only to diffuse the underlying fear of going up against someone with domesticated murderous monsters. Literally. The following bout of silence tells him neither of the younger men is in the mood for jokes, and he clears his voice. "So... where to?"

"Is Perkins' address on public record?"

The one question is enough to clue the Lieutenant in to their theory— Hank almost visibly rolls his eyes holding back a groan.

"The asshat is actually gonna try and go at him?!"

Connor shrugs. "Well he disappeared from his apartment along all his weapons, and we have no other lead."

That’s true. Plus, if Hank was an angry 20-something year old with a grudge, a motive and little to lose, he’d probably go all in, too.

As they move out, Markus starts sending his location to Luther so he can keep track of them should things start it seems like they will manage to reach Gavin a little ways before Perkins’ house.

“Markus?” the shadow-man’s inquisitive hum prompts Connor to continue: “Before, you said Gavin thought you might have been a souleater or close to becoming it… is that a thing that can happen?”

“Well. Not to guys like me, supposedly.” Is the answer. “I’ve been trained for a long time and for a lot of situations… when we first reconnected I mentioned to you that souleaters are inhabitants of the Veil that ‘go feral’… one of the ways this can happen is under severe and devastating trauma.”

Connor bites slightly at his lower lip “Shit…”

“Yeah.”

When they do find Gavin’s car, strangely enough, it’s parked alongside the road, and the shifter is just standing outside of it –leaning both hands on top of the driver’s door and standing slightly hunched over.

He seems to also be breathing heavily… either to calm himself down or psych himself up.

“Do we just… stop and talk to him?” Connor is about to ask Markus how slow they should take this, but his boyfriend clearly has other ideas and signals at Hank to stop too, opening the door so fast he nearly gets out before Connor is even finished pulling over:

“I know that stance, he’s trying with every fiber of himself not to become the thing he hates, we need to snap him out of it!” He drops his disguise right there in the middle of the road, thanking his lucky stars it’s not a too terribly crowded area or possibly even a residents-only street. Then he takes a few steps forward, and calls out at the top of his lungs: “ _Desharik_!!!”

Gavin jolts abruptly in place and turns towards them –his face is almost a blank canvas. His eyes are no more than two thin splits with a fully black sclera, there’s no definite shape outlining his nose, cheekbones or lips, save for the subtle line where his mouth is and the two tiny dots of his nostrils.

If the souleater hunter really is a Desharik, it’s _definitely_ him.


	10. Through the Veil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You lived your life knowing you're a 'monster', but you're more than that." Markus' eyes flicker briefly to Connor in fondness, before looking back up in front of him, "We're all more than that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW. It's been like forever by my standards.
> 
> I really wanted to make chapter 10 the last but.  
> Nah.  
> It got away from me.  
> So we will have 11 instead.  
> Next chapter will def have the final confrontation with Perkins and his souleater minions, though.
> 
> There will also be time for Connor asking very uncomfortable questions asking about when exactly Hank found out about Veronika being a shifter, since he doesn't seem that surprised. XD  
> Markus is lowkey loving that.  
> And yeah, he knew. Lucy told him.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long and it's probably a bit lackluster, I'm just trying very hard to finish it so it doesn't stay incomplete.  
> Hopefully next chapter won't be as painstakingly difficult.
> 
> Take my love.

Gavin is breathing heavily.

He was just heading over to unmask the monster behind this string of murders, when he felt his vision go dark at the corner and had to stop his car.

_That was entirely too close._

He knows he's an abomination, but he thought he was _different_. That he had been cursed with the abilities he has for the sake of eradicating monsters off the face of the Earth.

 

He still remembers his adoptive parents— he'd been a normal child up until about age three, when his nature first manifested... everything changed after that.

His mother was terrified of the way he'd shape his palms to mimic a cat's paws to brace for a fall, and she screamed the day he hardened his skin to be able to keep playing outside on the balcony even with the sun glaring down and threatening to  sunburn 'normal' children.

The word 'demon' got tossed around, and after doctors specialists and questionable therapies, the only parents he ever knew had him 'exorcised', for all the good it did.

Try as he might, he was still a shifter, even though he didn't yet know the word for it, and by age 6 Gavin was firmly convinced he was an aberration.

He stopped using his 'powers'. He started taking the brunt of falls, letting his skin get red and itchy under the sun, letting his legs run as slowly as everyone else's.

His parents were happy again.

Then this stupid boy in school starts talking about his 'best friend', the monster from another world, and about all the cool things _'Markus'_ could do.

And other kids like him joined in.

Gavin hated them all.

But more than them, Gavin hated the monster that got to be heroes in their tales, instead of being subjected to a psychiatrist first and a priest after.

He grew up hating them.

But one day, justice came in the form of 'Markus' getting forgotten— so much so that Connor dismissed his very existence as a child's imaginary friend. It made Gavin feel vindicated – _he_ was real, instead, and the infamous Markus was _gone_ , no longer anyone's hero.

He had loved Connor for that.

But he still hated monsters, himself included, and he never outgrew his bitterness at the unfairness of his childhood; and he took it out on Connor, ultimately ruining their relationship.

In the end, sticking close to Connor for those few years did leave something valuable to Gavin: knowledge. There was a truth in childhood tales that the human was not aware of; and Gavin took it, searched and researched, eventually learning about the Veil separating a dimension from another and the places it grows thinner in this world.

And he learned about the many accidents in the last two decades, that left families broken and children stranded as the barriers weakened and cracked, before reforming in constant evolution.

He learned about many like him, lost and dismissed as a _Desharik_ by a world that couldn't spare the effort to try harder.

His hatred grew.

Finally, insult to injury, 'Markus' had the gall to come back.

Connor introduced him as a human, but Gavin could tell— shifter eyes can see past any disguise.

And he became torn between hating Connor more and wanting to protect the stupid human from the disaster waiting to happen.

Monsters are exactly that, and those who live long enough to become a souleater always will.

Or at least that's what he told himself as he tried to justify his parent's actions and his messed up upbringing— he tried so hard not to blame them.

Believing in the goodness of humans was all he had, but it wasn't something he would be able to do if he ever faced the reality of having grown up with abusers.

 

But now, as he stands alone, leaning against his car while trying to calm his racing heart and still the molecules underneath his skin before they melt into shadows, it's the _monster_ who comes to his rescue.

Markus shouts the name he hates, the word that marks him as lost, forgotten and damaged, and indignation takes priority on his mental breakdown.

"Don't you _dare_ call me that!" He growls, "I am not one of you."

By Markus' side, Connor almost physically recoils at the sheer venom in his voice, but the shadow-man stands his ground.

"I know who you are, Gavin. I know _what_ you are." He says, echoing the other's words from their first meeting, "For what it's worth... I'm sorry things turned out this way for you—"

" _Don't_. I don't need a monster's pity!"

Wisely, Markus doesn't continue that phrase –Lucy did some digging on all the Deshariks, and the one case that aligns with Gavin's current age and the location where records of him first appeared is an unfortunate one.

The quake took both his biological parents and catapulted Gavin on the other side, and back then shadow-jumping was considered to be much more dangerous than it was eventually discovered to be.

The child was assumed dead, and there was no search for him.

"Listen to me." He tries instead, "You're free to despise me and the rest of our kind, but with the way you've been slaughtering souleaters left and right you've made yourself a target. Perkins is playing you, and if you go to him now you'll do exactly what he wants you to."

Gavin shakes his head, a ghost of his human features starting to appear on his face.

"What do you care?"

The shadow-man doesn't hesitate: "I will not let an innocent take the fall for a killer's actions."

"Innocent?!" Gavin shouts derisively, "I'm a _monster_!"

"Are you? From where I stand, the people who made you hate yourself that much are the _real_ monsters."

The back and forth is grating, Hank is still standing awkwardly a few feet behind them and Connor doesn't quite know what to say, as he watches his current boyfriend try to reason with his ex.

"After everything... the things I've done... it can't all be meaningless."

Gavin is not shouting anymore, and his facial features have stopped flickering in and out –he's in control of himself again.

Connor lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding: if he has to fight a souleater today, at least it won't be someone he once cared about.

"It will only be meaningless if you go feral." Markus presses on, taking a tentative step forward, "Perkins has immunized himself to souleaters somehow, and he doesn't risk going 'feral' from exposure because he's human—"

"He's _not_ human!" The rebuttal is instant and just this side of desperate, "He can't be... he can't..."

Privately, the shadow-man does pity Gavin a little— the shifter got dealt a shitty hand in life, on both sides of the Veil.

Talk about bad luck.

"I'm sorry, but he is." He says, holding back any words of sympathy that would just anger the other further, "We checked him."

It's probably the wrong thing to say to the guy who wanted the bad guy to be a monster so bad; but the sooner Gavin accepts the truth, the better it will be in the long run.

Connor feels a pang of sadness for the shifter as he watches powerlessly while Gavin turns to lean his back against his car and sinks down to sit on the asphalt.

Markus crosses the rest of the distance separating them, hovering a hand over the shifter's shoulder but not touching yet.

"Breathe, Gavin. You're okay. You know you're better than this. Stronger."

"I don't—" it's barely more than a broken gasp. What bitter irony, for the one person to give him genuine words of comfort in his entire life to be the embodiment of what he taught himself to hate.

It's harder from the inside, but Gavin is not an idiot –he realizes all too well that the root of his hatred is to serve as a coping mechanism for all the bad things that happened to him. He just never had to face the possibility of admitting to it, before.

Markus' clawed hand lands on his shoulder, gentle and reassuring despite the treatment the shadow-man has been receiving.

Ignoring the way his skin instantly sends messages to his brain on how to replicate the look and texture of that same hand, Gavin tries to listen and focus on his breathing.

"There you go." Markus praises with a smile. Gavin knows that the other is probably doing this out of love for Connor, since he has no reason to care, especially after what their interactions have been so far... but it still almost drives Gavin to tears, to see someone directing a genuine smile at his real face. "See? Not bad, for a 'monster'. Let's get you up."

Hanging back as he is, Connor feels that this is deeply surreal-- and not just the fact that his ex is actually a shapeshifter or that his current boyfriend who is also an interdimensional creature is playing nice with his ex...

No wait; it's exactly all of that.

Sparing a glance to his father, he sees Hank shrug at him and take a few steps forwards while Markus is helping Gavin stand up.

"Everything under control?" The Lieutenant  asks.

Markus simply nods at him, while Gavin sweeps his eyes across all of them, before landing them back on Markus:

"Why are you being nice to me?"

The shadow-man heaves a deep sigh. He closes his eyes for a moment, then opens all of them -though his upper eyes squint at the excessive light.

"Look... do I still think you're a dick? Yes. Misguided? Absolutely. Have been going about this whole thing exactly the wrong way? Check." He lists off, matter-of-factly, counting off his hands before softening his gaze. "But from being an unpleasant person to deserving jail time, or God forbid dying bloody at the hands of a power-hungry asshole... there's a whole sea in between. You lived your life knowing you're a 'monster', but you're more than that." Markus' eyes flicker briefly to Connor in fondness, before looking back up in front of him, "We're _all_ more than that."

Gavin takes a long, trembling breath.

"Let's just... not go there, for now." He doesn't plead, but it's a close thing. "I... don't think I'm in a mental state apt for self-rediscovery, and it's really not the time." He glances in Hank's direction. "How about we change topics and you guys tell me why you're rescuing me instead of arresting me?"

That's a fair question and a good point.

The shadow-man steps back to give Gavin his space as he speaks:

"As I've said, we know the real culprit is Richard Perkins, and he's trying to make a scapegoat out of you. Chances are he figured you'd be coming and he's waiting for you with his attack creatures ready."

Well. Shit.

Admittedly, Gavin had acted on impulse as soon as he heard his name being thrown around as a suspect, but in hindsight going there alone would have probably signed off his death –or worse, turned him into another souleater at Perkins' mercy.

He shudders at the thought.

And yet, short of going into hiding, he can't think of anything else to do.

"...So now what?"

"Come with us, instead." It's the first words Connor speaks to him since they reached him, and the first words not laced in venom that they exchange in a long time. "Perkins has one more obstacle in front of him to get the position he wants, and there's probably a souleater already planted in their home."

"Our friends are tracking it down and taking care of it as we speak. It's very possible that, once Perkins realizes he's been made, he will do one of two things..." Markus adds, exchanging another look with Connor as they instinctively join hands once they're side by side. "Either he'll kill all the souleaters and get rid of any proof, or, if he's particularly stubborn, he'll try to come for all the people opposing him: Hank, Connor... and you."

After all, Lucy had been careful to cover their tracks and Perkins has had his hands full with keeping the lone shifter off his back— Markus has to concede one thing, Gavin is one persistent motherfucker.

So at least they have an element of surprise against this asshole; and if Gavin accepts to come with them, they might even have an advantage.

The shifter is silent for a moment, considering. "So since he's after me, you guys thought to anticipate him."

"That makes you sound like bait." Hank comments, not entirely sure that wasn't Markus' strategy but not really willing to dwell on it too much.

"True, but it could be a solid plan." Gavin argues, much to their surprise. "Ok. I'm in."

He doesn't even flinch when he sees Markus' sharp teeth as the shadow-man breaks into a smile.

 

"We're at the last potential victim's house." Luther's voice echoes through the crystal, "There have been no energy surges yet, but that could also mean that a souleater is already planted and gnawing at the back of the victim's mind already."

"Who's we?" Markus asks, already running numbers in his mind.

He's not surprised at all when Luther hesitates to talk— he's come to know his and Connor's friends all too well.

"It's me and Josh, and uh... Kara offered to come in case medical assistance is needed, and Simon will help her."

Kara is a pharmacist, not a doctor, but they can't exactly be choosy in the heat of battle, especially when you bleed midnight blue or fiery orange, and the seconds a human doctor takes to ask what the fuck that is can make the difference between life and death. Ideally, Markus would rather have them all safe and far away, Connor and Hank included, but he already knows that's simply not going to happen.

"I trust you guys to keep them out of harm's way." He says instead, tacitly giving the go-ahead to the entire operation.

When Luther answers, Markus can practically hear the smile.

"Got it. Lucy and North are protecting Mrs. Rakli, but we're in near constant contact."

"Good. Keep it that way." The shadow-man knows it's an unnecessary reminder, but it makes him feel better to say it out loud. "We're on our way, and Gavin agreed to help."

The emphasis on the shifter's name, instead of the title Desharik that they had been using up until now, speaks volumes of Markus' feelings on the situation, and Luther gets it.

"Got it. We're keeping an eye out."

And that's the end of the conversation.

Hank is pensive behind the wheel.

"If there's already a souleater in the house, we need to come up with a good reason for the target to open the door for us and get you guys close enough to extract it..."

"We can use Perkins." Connor suggests, "He brought forward a suspect, declaring him armed and dangerous, we can claim to all be from the DPD and be working closely with the FBI, and that there's been a sighting of the suspect around."

Not a bad idea— if the victim is far enough gone that they don't think to ask for credentials past Hank's, they can buy themselves enough time for a distraction.

And even if they don't let them in, Hank only needs to distract them long enough for Markus to shadow-jump inside and lure the souleater out.

It's worth a shot.

"I'll stay out of sight until we can get the humans to safety."

 

The villa is silent when they get to it, but that doesn't mean they can let their guard down.

"Mr. Reyner? This is Hank Anderson, from the DPD—"

"It— it's not a good time, right now."

Even from underneath his disguise, Markus' eyes tell the Lieutenant their suspicions are confirmed.

He tries pressing on:

"I understand, sir, and I hate to bother you, but my colleague and I have received reports that the main suspect in our investigation has been sighted close by... if you would be so kind to let us have a quick look around, to ensure your safety..."

The man on the other side of the door peers at them from the open sliver of space over the chain.

"I don't... I don't think it's a good idea."

It couldn't be more obvious that a souleater is whispering nefarious advice right into this man's synapses if he had a blacked out sclera.

Markus only needs to get a glimpse at his shadow to uncloak it.

"It is merely a formality, sir." He chimes in, "The sooner we do this, the sooner we'll be out of your hair. Two minutes, really."

Hank glances at him in a silent question, and Markus gives him a subtle nod— two minutes will be more than enough to at least get the big bad out.

After that... they'll pretty much be exposed, but they don't have a realistic way to save the target without forcing the souleater in the open.

Finally, they hear the latch disengaging from the door.

"Okay... may I see a warrant, Lieutenant Anderson?"

"What? Ah, yes, yes just a sec... now where did I put that..." during the few seconds Hank pretends to fumble with his pockets, Markus takes the liberty to push the door the rest of the way.

Connor, at a safe distance behind them, hurries to catch up: Markus was not kidding when he said his eyes would be more attuned to the Veil, after they got intimate... while back at Veronika's place David's shadow had just looked bigger and darker than it should have, this man's shadow looks organic, like he's trailing a pool of tar behind him, and distorted hands are already emerging the moment Markus drops the disguise and pulls up his cloaking.

" _Jesus Christ,_ what the _hell_ is that?!?"

"You can see it?" Connor can't help asking, despite knowing it's not the time, "How?"

It's enough to startle a laugh out of Markus.

"Hank, you _hound_!" He comments, confusing Connor even more if possible. "Not that much of a gentleman, after all!"

"Can we _fucking focus_?!" The Lieutenant yells, in tandem with their would-be target's panicked scream:

"What's happening?!"

Connor lets the matter go for a moment and  rushes to the man.

"Sir, you and your family are in danger! Please, round up everyone in your household and evacuate as quickly as possible!" Sharing a look with Markus over the human's head, Connor pulls towards himself while the shadow-man lets the souleater grasp at his ankle for the sole purpose of yanking it in the opposite direction.

It's not as straightforward as snapping a thread, but separating the shadow from the body already lessens the influence considerably, and the man falls into step with Connor.

"I— my daughter won't speak to me..."

Right. If the souleater has been there a while, heavens know what horrible part of the human's character it has exacerbated.

Truly, it's one of the worst, most underhanded ways of preying on someone that Connor has ever seen.

"None of that matters, now." He makes a point of dragging the man faster by the arm, "We're trying to save your life, here!"

Taking advantage of the commotion, Gavin slips into the house to fight alongside Markus, while Connor and Hank go about evacuating the family.

What they were not expecting was for the teenaged daughter's shadow to also be distorted by the tar-like consistence of a souleater.

Hearing the screams, Markus opens contact:

 ** _"Move in, guys, there's more than one souleater planted, we need to contain them before they rip a hole in the Veil!"_** Two souleaters are normally not enough to do that, but with so many people he cares about in the field, the shadow-man isn't taking any chances. **_"And call Lucy in."_**

At this point, the family is in a state of panic as a whole, and Kara and Simon join Connor and Hank's efforts to evacuate them and get them at a safe distance from the house.

"Stay with them and protect them." Connor asks Josh, "I need to go back to Markus."

"I got this." Josh replies, knowing that with Luther by his side and Lucy coming, Markus has more than enough back up for him to stay and protect the civilians –their division is called the 'defenders' in their world for a reason… Josh has always taken care more of the intelligence and research side of things, but this is kind of an ‘all hands on deck’ situation.

Connor re-enters the house just in time to see Lucy shadow-jumping in, along with North and, most curiously, Veronika.

"Aunt Vee?!"

"No time to explain, Connor, where is your father?"

"Outside, protecting the people. What—"

Lucy interrupts him:

"Perkins has been tracking your father's movements and plans to frame him as an accomplice; we're here to stop that."

"...How?"

It's at that moment that he understands why Hank could see the souleater and why Markus nearly burst out laughing then and there: Veronika's form changes under his stunned eyes, and her voice loses the Hungarian accent in favor of 'asshole federal agent' tone. "I'll make a call pre-emptively excusing all of you and mentioning someone trying to steal my identity, so further communications from Richard Perkins should be disregarded."

Then, still under Connor's eyes, she reverts back to herself and nods towards the skirmish sounds coming from deeper inside the house.

"Go. Markus will need you there." She says, before running outside to find Hank.

"I— what?"

Lucy smiles at him. "I told you, there were _several_ _Deshariks_ we found in Detroit during our search. Not all of them matched the age/gender/motive, but..."

So Veronika is a shifter, too.

Oh. _Ooh_.

The implications immediately running through his head make him shudder despite the urgency.

"Jesus Christ, dad!" He grumbles despite himself, shaking the thought of _'way too much information'_ out of his head and focusing.

There's a loud screech from the upper floor and the three nod to each other before rapidly heading over to join in the fight.

The souleaters appear fully formed to Connor now, sticking to the room's dark corners and sending shockwaves out to destroy lightbulbs and create more darkness.

They're strong— they have to have been feeding on these people's psyche for a while now... which tells Connor that the ones that succeeded in taking their prey's life had been at work for even longer, so Perkins has been planning this for _years_.

Then Gavin gets flung across the room and into a wall hard enough to scrape the paintjob off it, and he remembers this is no time for investigative deductions.

North takes out an identical blade to the one Markus gave him.

"Lucy, I can't see it, what do I do?"

"Focus on my voice and don't panic. I will be your eyes."

Right. North and Lucy love each other dearly, but they don't get physical, never having had that particular urge, despite all the jokes that came from calling North ‘Little Miss Tentacles’. Still, it's immediately clear that a physical closeness to the Veil is _not_ the only way to attune oneself to it: Lucy's voice changes and she starts chanting –it's a melody without words as far as Connor can tell, but it makes North's eyes glow gold, and she dodges effortlessly when one of the two creatures lunges for her.

Connor's eyes finally get fully used to the darkness and find Markus: his cloaking is flickering, and even though Connor can only see the glow of his four eyes, the shadow-man looks in pain.

He draws his blade. "You ok?"

Markus gives him a stiff nod. "Lucy's song draws the shadows out of the Veil and flattens it behind us –none of the creatures within hearing rage will be able to shadow-jump, conceal themselves, or attempt entering someone's mind."

It evens the playing field for him and North, but if Luther's labored breath and the way Markus' cloaking flickers one last time before dropping is any indication, it affects them too.

Connor's jaw clenches in a hard line. They have to finish this fast. He tracks one of the souleaters with his eyes, as it tries to leap from one dark corner to the other and, spotting an opening, lunges to try and stab it in the leg –he misses, but the souleater's momentum is carrying it right where Connor wants:

"Markus!" He calls out as he tosses the blade.

Even in his weakened state, Markus' reflexes are fast, and he catches the dagger just in time to plunge it into the souleater's throat.

He usually tries to keep it as non-lethal as possible, but these entities had gathered way too much strength –a few more chances to lash out and someone could have seriously got hurt.

Gavin is knocked down but none too worse for the wear, and he's already coming to again as the fatally injured souleater screeches and wails, semi-corporeal body collapsing onto itself and going out in a powerful shockwave.

It's bad enough to blow Markus back, briefly sprawling him on the floor, and the destroyed floor-lamp that was in the corner sparks making the carpet underneath catch fire.

How lucky for them to be in the company of a fire giant.

Luther crosses the brief distance in three quick strides, slams a hand onto the floor near the blossoming flames and his already fully fiery eyes get brighter –it's as if his fingers are roots, through which any sort of flame that was on the ground gets absorbed into his body.

Belatedly, Connor realizes he can now see Luther's veins, glowing orange beneath the dark purple skin.

The second souleater throws itself of the floor, convulsing for a moment, but then shoots out of the room, as if spooked –or worse, called back.

They all know where it's going, and they have to give chase.

Outside, though, they find out that the man who was unknowingly hosting the first souleater has passed out and his wife and daughter are in shock, trembling and covering their faces despite Simon and Kara's aid and attempts at comforting them.

Following the creature out, North chances a dagger throw to incapacitated, eyes still glowing thanks to Lucy's song— in normal circumstances it would be immoral and illegal to fire at someone who's fleeing, but the souleater was attempting to hop into the child's shadow to escape Lucy's song and hitch a ride.

It warrants a warning shot at the very least, and North's blade strikes true: it embeds itself into the creature's calf and the wail it emits makes all the humans cover their ears in discomfort.

Definitely still strong.

The souleater emits another shriek as it seemingly ejects the blade from its own leg with a shockwave, sending it flying out— Josh, closest to the humans alongside Simon and Kara, pulls up his cloaking around them to protect them, while the souleater just stalks out into the semi-deserted streets.

In the suspended silence that follows, they all catch their breath while exchanging mixed looks.

Connor is visibly worried about how roughed up Markus looks, Kara has a quiet, knowing sort of concern in her eyes about Luther storing live fire in his veins for too long, and everyone has the definite, underlying awareness of how _fucked up_ everything is.

Lucy stops chanting for a moment, shifting to a different melody as she extends an arm towards the victim’s family.

The humans promptly fall asleep, and the others catch up to her quick thinking: the traumatized, unsuspecting civilians have been removed from the equation.

 ** _“Each of them will think this was just a nightmare when they wake up.”_** She assures, before her voice goes back to normal. “I’ll have to stay back and make sure the chant has its full effect, and I have to gather up the remnants of the dead souleater anyways, so…”

With a whole lot of damage control to do, Lucy has her hands full and won’t be able to give them that same advantage on the proverbial ‘final’ confrontation.

“How long will I keep the sight?” North asks, to gauge exactly how useful she can still be in battle.

Lucy takes a hold of both her hands and squeezes gently. “Until you fall asleep next. But be careful for me, promise?”

Resting her head gently against her beloved friend’s forehead, North nods minutely. “Promise.”

“Alright, so what’s the plan?” Hank asks, instinctively seeking out Veronika with his eyes and holding out a hand to her –Connor tries hard not to smile. It’s not the time now, but he never thought he’d see his old man in love.

With a shifter, no less.

…It must run in the family.

Markus clears his voice slightly –possibly to conceal a giggle. “Well. With the state his minion will come back to him, Perkins will likely figure out that his last plan got busted and be expecting us.” He says, favouring his left shoulder a bit but seemingly ready for round two, “Might as well go in guns blazing and get it over with.”

After all, they have a fully fuelled firestarter, two defenders, two shifters and five very pissed humans ready to protect their friends and loved ones.

They can do this.

Chancing a look at Simon’s eyes –blue enough to rival some creatures from the shadow-realm, but infinitely more gentle than anyone else he’s ever met– Josh allows himself a smile.

“Let’s go save the day, then.”


	11. Out of the shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unformatted because my phone refuses to cooperate and I'm walking to work rn I haven't even spellchecked this but I wanted to see it posted, I'll try to fixing during my lunch or tonight at most pls love me bye

Connor cannot bring himself to still be weirded out at the fact that his father apparently also had monster sex and neglected to tell him, not when he sees Veronika running towards him as soon as they find each other and into a waiting embrace.

It's made all the more adorable when one considers Vee is a good head taller than Hank, and as such she effortlessly turns the man's head to the side to cradle him to herself, cheek to her chest.

"I was so scared for you!"

"You should have stayed safe—" he tries to protest as they break their hug to look at each other, but she isn't having any of it:

"While you're in trouble and I can help? Not a chance." Hank was about to move in for a kiss, but stops himself when Veronika's voice changes into one he definitely would not like to hear, "Take me to your car, I'll use your radio and buy you some time."

Hank is so, so glad that Vee can only imitate the man's voice and not his looks because she can only copy what touches her body –sound vibrating through your eardrums counts, so she probably listened to a recording of Perkins' voice just before coming here, but still.

Of all the amazing things Veronika can do, Hank hopes sounding like this specific asshole will be a one-time thing.

Eugh.

It's surreal to see her gentle, loving face speak like the asshole FBI agent who's been making Hank's life a living hell, but the call works and 'Perkins' has now given Lieutenant Anderson carte blanche on chasing and identifying the 'real culprit' on the run and wrapping up this case.

 

While they did this, Markus has been taking stock of wounds to their friends and/or damage to the Veil, or whatever the hell else is that is somehow his responsibility— Connor doesn't envy him. Markus mentioned to him he was in 'training', back when they reunited, but clearly his current position as a defender is already complex enough as is.

Heh. Seems like they're both overachievers.

"We have no serious wounds going on, Luther is fully charged up and North still has Lucy's sight..." the shadow-man tells him as they walk up to each other, "We can catch our breath on our way to Perkins."

"That's good, that's good..." Connor resists all of two seconds. "You knew Vee was a shifter this whole time?!" He scolds, punching Markus in the shoulder lightly.

Markus takes it, head hung slightly down, but ultimately shrugs:

"It was her choice to tell or not."  
Connor shakes his head with a smile— bedroom antics notwithstanding, once a gentleman, always a gentleman.

Veronika catches the exchange and approaches them, reaching a hand out to Connor.

"I have always been Veronika, but I was 17 when I became a Desharik for my homeland. It was April 1986." She explains, "Hungary is not as close to Chernobyl as the most affected areas were, but the ripples the disaster created on the Veil were... not pretty."

Holy shit. That explains a lot of things, including why she would be reluctant to tell.  
"I don't even remember what I fell into, but I found myself on this side, alone, terrified and unable to shift or even attempt to glimpse in the Veil due to the side effects of whatever had happened to me. It lasted four months, and I was lucky people in the hospital just thought my appearance was due to the disaster. During my time there I learned as much as I could about this side and faked a slow tissue recovery as my shifting abilities returned— they still called it a miracle, by my secret was safe."

"I'm— I'm so sorry, auntie Vee, I'd have never asked if I knew—"

"It's okay, Connor." She assures, smiling when she feels him give her hands a squeeze, "It was a long time ago." Her eyes roam among the others, and find the one she has never met before but heard about. "Deshariks are always born from tragedy... but where we end is up to us."

Gavin holds the stare, but he feels the barb.

_Don't that just beat the shit out of everything._

Their situations are obviously different, but broken down to the bone the message is one: you can suffer through terrible things and still come out the other end without wanting to hurt anyone.

The following awkward silence is broken by Hank: "Shall we? Our element of surprise won't last too long."

They take the cars, unwilling to shadow-jump with passengers into a place none of them has ever been to and potentially full of hostile creatures, but they still leave them a little way's out.

Markus stops in his tracks as they approach the house, making all the others turn to him.

"Gavin, do you have any extra daggers?"

"I have... gathered a few, yes." The shifter is hesitant to mention that he got them off the bodies of monsters he killed, but there isn't much he can do about that now.

Markus doesn't ask anyway, carrying on with a stone-faced expression: "Enough to give one to each of our human friends who doesn't have one?"

"...probably? Why?"

The shadow-man takes a deep breath. "Do it." He all but orders, "I have never felt so much souleater activity concentrated in one place. Prolonged exposure could be enough to turn us, if we're hurt badly enough." He turns to look at Connor and brush a hand over his cheek, "Promise me you'll defend yourselves, worse come to worse."

Connor doesn't even want to think about that.  
"It won't come to that. I trust you." He counters almost vehemently, putting his own hand over Markus'. "But I promise."

After all he knows that Markus –all of them, really– would much rather die than live as a soul-snatching murderer.

Hank also walks up to Markus' other side and pats him on the back:

"We'll do what needs doing, but we got your back. What's the plan?"

The shadow-man throws a look around. It's a big house in a relatively isolated area, with a big backyard and multiple floors, possibly a basement too.

He doesn't like it, but it's the fastest way to cover the most ground:

"We need to split up. Part of us will go in through the backyard, a second group will charge in through the front and the last ones will sneak in and make a sweep of the higher floor. We converge on the ground floor in 5 minutes and take it from there."

North, Simon and Josh take up the sneaking and recon, the three of them more than familiar with poking around where they shouldn't be, plus Josh's expertise as a defender and North's police training being more than handy in this situation.

Markus sends Connor and Hank around the outer back along Veronika and Kara –Connor and Hank will be a lynchpin in preventing any creatures to get out, and the ladies will both be extra blades and two people with first-aid knowledge under their belts, so the shadow-man feels better about leaving Connor and Hank in their care.

Luther hands Kara his crystal, so all three groups can communicate at all times if need be— the giant will lead the frontal assault alongside Markus and Gavin.

Hopefully, that will bait Perkins into sending the bulk of the souleaters in his possession after them to try and secure his scapegoat.

There is also a significant chance that Perkins might be expecting and targeting Hank as well, but Markus plans to create a loud enough diversion to delay the Lieutenant getting noticed.

 

 _«Of course this asshat would have a pool just to keep it covered under a shitty tarp.»_ Hank mutters as they advance in the yard.  
True enough, the pool doesn't look like it's used much, if at all. The tarp covering it is even torn in places, which says a lot about why a man like Perkins would even get a pool in the first place...

_«You know how it is, dad... if you have a big house with a pool then you're rich and important.»_

From the connected crystal, a quiet laughter can be heard from Josh:

 _«Oh yeah, not overcompensating at all.»_  
"Guys, focus!" Markus chastises, managing to feel only slightly hypocritical for privately thinking it was funny too, "We're busting in as soon as you're all in position."

 _«We're ready on the outside!»_ Kara calls softly, clutching the borrowed blade and hoping she won't have to use it.

 _«We're arriving at the side door right... now!»_ Josh also confirms.

Markus then exchanges a nod with Luther and Gavin, and they take a deep breath.  
Luther all but kicks the front door open in two powerful hits and Gavin rushes inside first, yelling at the top of his lungs:

"Perkins!!! I know it was you, you spineless worm! Come out and face me like a man!"

The hallway before them is silent for a couple moments, then the familiar screeching of souleaters can be heard throughout the house.

"On your guard, everyone." Markus has the time to hiss in his crystal, "I can't make a count of the presences I sense."

Which is a bad sign in and of itself. A number of souleaters too big to count on perception alone can range anywhere between 5 and 500, depending on how finely tuned are the senses of the shadow-person trying. Lucy could have probably made an estimate, but she's still making sure the last victim's house is cleared and the dead souleater is passing through the Veil.

On that very thought, a cloud of black ripples up from the end of the hallway, likely coming from the basement, and shoots towards the entrance with the speed of an expanding gas all but engulfing the three.

The crystals crackle with interference.  
Markus and Gavin react to the forces attacking them by trying to stab the parts that are solidifying before them, but it's too many and too densely huddled together— that's when Luther steps in:

"This will scorch a bit!" He warns, letting the fire in his veins glow bright enough to shine through his skin.

Markus quickly catches on: "I don't care, don't let them get away!"  
Luther discharges outwards with a yell that is almost a roar, the incendiary cloud shooting out of his skin in a matter of milliseconds, and enveloping the mass around them in a fiery blaze.

As soon as he feels the scorching heat free his arms, Markus grabs for Gavin and tugs him to the floor.

"Get down!"

Fire always travels upwards, after all.  
They were in contact with the incendiary cloud for less than half a second, but when they get up the hems of their clothes are still singed and there are mild burns on Markus' shoulders and elbows –Gavin has been luckier, because the threat of burning awakened deep buried instincts and his skin hardened like a lizard's.

He expected to feels self-conscious under the others' stare, but Markus just smirks at him.

"Nicely done."

Luther seems simply glad they're both ok.  
_«Incoming over here too!»_ Josh manages to say before the crystal crackles again, and Markus makes an executive decision:

"Use lethal force to defend yourselves, there's too many and they seem to be using pack tactics! Keeping yourselves alive has the highest priority, understood?"

He is relieved when affirmatives come from both other crystals.

Souleaters moving and attacking in packs is practically unheard of, and if Perkins is herding this many towards them, he must have been planning this for years.

Gavin is making none of these deductions. He's still reeling at the unfamiliar feeling of being praised for his shifting abilities instead of scorned. Praised just for— for being what he is, and doing what's in his nature to do.  
Okay. Maybe he can see why Connor always thought Markus was so great -a guy can get used to being smiled at like that. Not that he has the time to mull it over too long: the shadow-man exchanges a nod with Luther, then turns back to him and Gavin nods that he's ready to move forwards as well, watching as Markus pulls up his shadow cloaking.

It's still a bit frazzled and weakened from Lucy's chant, but a semi-see through armor is better than no armor. It will do.

Josh, Simon and North have slightly better luck; the souleaters they see on their recon up the stairs and around the upper floor are moving as separate beings, but still surprisingly coordinated in their assault -four of them.  
Josh kills the first one before it could leap for Simon's throat, North makes quick work of two more while the last one attempts to worm its way into her brain to give her a panic attack about the fact that she's killing without remorse, but she manages to wrestle the intruding sensation out of her mind and Simon puts a blade through the creature that crawls out of her shadow.

"You still have Lucy's sight! Impressive!" Josh comments with a nod and a pat on North's shoulder. "It doesn't normally last that long."  
Clearly, North and Lucy are a bit of a special case. They haven't 'exchanged fluids' per se, but the bond between them is as strong as any bond capable of transcending the Veil can be.

They push forward and walk into a study of sorts; Josh notices open books, article printouts and handwritten notes of very familiar theories and equations -familiar to someone like him, at least.

"This is big, Markus." He calls out as softly as he can. "Perkins has done his homework, looks like he's been studying the Veil and collecting souleaters for a long time."

From the crystal Luther left with Kara, they all can hear Hank's voice: _«What the fuck is he? A pokémon trainer on a midlife crisis?! Christ...»_

It takes a lot of mental fortitude for Markus not to chuckle at that, though Luther and Gavin can see him biting down on his lower lip to suppress a grin.

The shifter catches Markus sending him a more focused look and resumes his baiting, hollering louder as the advance into a living space of sort:

"Is that all you've got, Perkins???" He shouts, "You're gonna have to do better than that to down me! Come on!!!"

They finally find the man, sitting in an armchair and drinking a cup of coffee as if his sidearm wasn't in plain view on the coffee table.

Distantly, Markus finds him strangely familiar, there something about the ashen hair, receding airline and aquiline profile that he could swear he's seen before.

"Down _you_?" Perkins echoes disdainfully, "My poor boy, you're worthless to me, you're barely even a scapegoat— even that is a consequence of your own brash actions: I already had a perfectly good cover story in place before you started killing off my pets."

Gavin himself is too busy bristling confusedly at the human's words to counter that, but Luther has a few words on his behalf.

"Awfully short for being such a huge prick."

The FBI agent doesn't take the bait, likely too old for 'short' jokes, and just sets his coffee cup down, letting his hand hover dangerously close to his gun.

"See, Mr. Reed, I'm definitely more worried about the _monsters_ who can actually stop me..." he mentions slowly, turning slightly towards the glass door that goes into his backyard, "...and the people who tipped them off!"

Markus has just the time to shout out "Take cover!!!" to avoid any of the ones outside doing something foolish like poking their head within line of sight, before diving right for Perkins' shadow.

But instead of filtering in and wrestling the man's shadow enough to make even his flesh and blood arm jerk away and drop the gun, he hits the floor with a hard thud and has to roll himself out of the fall and into a crouch.  
The whole room and the people outside of it fall in a sort of suspended disbelief.

"Did you think I wouldn't know to shield myself from you _creatures_?" Perkins sneers at him, "It took longer than I planned, but I have learned the secrets of shadow-jumping, at the end of the day, you're nothing but souleaters with morals."

Markus just grits his teeth beneath his cloaking, but the FBI agent's next words make all four of his eyes open in stunned rage:

"I have broken your kind before and I can do it again, if I have to drag you to the roof and toss you out myself!"

Richard Perkins.

That's why the profile and the suit were so familiar, how he's so knowledgeable that he was able to herd and manipulate souleaters in large packs... even the obsession of years –maybe decades– fits.

The madman in the grey coat.

Markus is face to face with the man who singlehandedly crippled his father.

He lunges at him with a cry, eyes glowing with barely contained fury as he still finds it in himself to go for the human's wrists to try and disarm him— it breaks the spell their surroundings had fallen in, and several things happen simultaneously:

North, Josh and Simon rush down from the stairs and into the room, the remnants of a destroyed souleater still smoking out of Josh's dagger.

The tarp covering the pool rips the rest of the way with the force of a cluster of souleaters that was hiding underneath it, going right for Kara, Connor, Hank and Vee.

At the same time, Markus and Perkins engage in a quick wrestle on the floor that doesn't last long, but ends with a shot ringing out.

"Markus!!!" Connor kicks the glass door open, shattering it, to rush inside and be by the other's side.

It's chaos all around them, with their friends rushing out to protect each other and some of the souleaters trying to push in to attack them, but Connor momentarily doesn't care for anything, except for Markus' voice:

"I'm okay. It's a graze."

The bullet scorched past his right hip and embedded itself into the couch. Connor could not possibly be more relieved; and he stands up with a nod, rushing back out to help the others fend off the pack.

Perkins is struggling slightly to get up himself, and Luther has the time to stop by Markus' side.

"Markus...?"  
The shadow-man gives a minute shake of the head.

"I'll be fine. I won't give this asshat the satisfaction of watching me go under." He assures, nodding towards the window-door.

"Go."

Gavin privately doesn't have that same innate trust in Markus, but at least there's plenty of amethyst blades to go around should worse come to worse.

In the meantime, they have a culprit to apprehend.

Then a shadow whip, non-dissimilar to the one Markus wields to capture live souleaters, emerges from Perkins' shadow and lashes out at them, while the man attempts to take another pot shot the two have to jump out of the way of.

Suddenly, a lot of things are clearer.

That's how you shield yourself from shadow-jumpers: by having something, or someone, already hiding inside it.

An accomplice?

Markus closes his eyes to project himself outwards, while Gavin distracts Perkins and acts like his primary target.

No live creature presence. There's only the very faint, nagging vibration of a souleater starving in the darkness.

It's not an accomplice, or a prisoner: it's barely even alive... Perkins is using it –her?– as a battery to siphon out power from.  
Markus has seen some shit in his time as a defender, but this almost makes him throw up.

"We have to separate them!" He calls out to Gavin, just as Perkins lines up another shot.  
Funnily enough, those words are the ones to send the man into panic when nothing else would.

"You won't get the chance to!!!" He yells, lunging at Markus with all his shadow’s got when the shot misses.

At the same time, things take a turn for the chaotic with Luther stepping out into the yard.

He always preferred to be out in the open if he absolutely had to fight— not having to slouch to even fit into a room is a definite blessing; and the giant can privately admit that his time spent within human-sized structures for work over the years left him just a little claustrophobic.

Out in a garden, though, with plenty of flammable things to play with and a pool to funnel them in, should fire get out of control?  
That's basically a playground for Luther.  
He opens his arms and sends out an incendiary cloud through the bulk of the cluster –time to deep fry some bitches with no remorse.

The only problem is that battling souleaters happens on two fronts at simultaneously: fending off the corporeal creature trying to physically kill you and keeping the annoying entity out of your brain.

It's the reason Markus and Josh's division even exists in the first place— the Defenders undergo extensive training to be able to do that under duress; it’s definitely not something that just about anyone could pull off.

Their human friends are holding up exceptionally well, things considered, but it’s only a matter of time until someone is forced to slip up.

North quickly emerges among them as the fastest and most aggressive fighter; and she gets swarmed by three souleaters— two distract her by rushing her from both sides, and the third tries to sneak through her shadow into her mind.

For a moment, she fights the oppressive feeling darkening her thoughts and gasps her way through the constricting feeling weighing down on her chest and pinning her in place.  
Josh was just about to dive for her shadow to try and wrestle the souleater away from it, but she finds her strength just in time to stab the creature in front of her in the neck and expel the one trying to infect her with a scream.

The first one dissolves in a shockwave, sending the second one toppling right into line of sight of Josh and his awaiting dagger.

"Nice." He calls out to North.

Her nose is bleeding from the effort of fighting off her second 'possession', but she gives Josh a toothy grin and a shallow, breathless chuckle.

"It'll take more than that to keep me—"

And of course they had to jinx it.

The third creature stayed hanging back while its companions died, and it takes advantage of the single moment North was catching her breath to solidify as hard as possible and bull-rush her with all its strength.

It strikes true, and the hit knocks North unconscious and into the pool.

"Simon!!!" Connor is back to back with his father and Veronika, but sees it happen and shouts for his friend, but the blond already pocketed his blade and is taking a running start to jump in the pool.

"On it!" It takes him less than 30 seconds to drag North back to the surface, check that her airways are clear and blow some hair in her face to check her responsiveness levels.  
Kara is also running to the poolside to help Simon haul their friend out.

North might be out of the fight for good— Kara remembers Lucy mentioning the sight lasting until she fell asleep next; and being knocked out might count.

With a nod to Simon, Kara takes a few extra seconds to drag her away from the heat of battle.

 

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when everything goes tits up, but it might have something to do with many things that happen at the same time.

Gavin and Markus, who were basically playing a deadly game of tag with Perkins, come barrelling outside in pursuit of the man.

The bulk of the souleaters that Luther had trapped in a circle of flames finally combust and incinerate into the ground, generating more fire.

One of the souleaters Hank and Connor were fending off worms its way into the Lieutenant's shadow, catching Connor's horrified and worried attention.

In the meantime, a fourth shot rings out from Perkins' gun, missing Markus by an embarrassing margin, but sending everything into stillness for a second nonetheless:

Just as Simon was verifying with reasonable certainty that North is out cold but none too worse for the wear, he feels a warm spray of something hit his side and feels more than hears Kara collapse to her knees next to him.  
"Shiiiit..." she barely manages to choke out the curse as the blond is already scrambling to her aid and putting pressure on the side of her neck.

Markus could swear he sees it happen in slow motion, when he hears Luther's desperate scream for his beloved.

" _Kara_!!!"

Simon is already keeping one hand firmly pressed against her wound and struggling to open her backpack to get first aid out; while Hank, despite having taken the knee himself between his equally worried son and girlfriend, growls out a stubborn but not entirely there "I'll be fine, look after the girl!"  
Veronika is distraught to say the least, but she goes— these young men and women may very well be her sons and daughters, too.

Connor stays by his father's side instead, with two people already making quick work of keeping Kara from bleeding out, a third body will only take up space and be a nuisance.

Instead, he can do plenty here: he needs to snap Hank out of whatever terror his mind was plunged into; and, judging by Luther's anguished cry and the trembling of his hands and arms...

Shit is about to go down very hard, very fast.

The giant's fiery gaze finds Perkins, but Luther doesn't move yet. Almost as if his body is being too overloaded with rage to even move.

**"You... worthless... waste of oxygen..."**

The giant's usually gentle baritone is now laced with a dark, terrifying promise of pain, but Perkins, either high on power or too foolish, doesn't back down.

"How exactly did you think your little romance would end?" He asks disdainfully, then turning and pointing his gun at Markus, "Or any of your stories, for that matter?!"

Off to the side, Connor is torn between keeping his eyes on the man and the few souleater at his disposal, or sticking close to his father to keep a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Dad! Dad, whatever you're thinking it isn't real!"

"Oh it's plenty real." The FBI agent intercepts, "It was in his head already, the souleater is just dragging it out."

 **"You..."** Luther is still shaking with barely contained fury, and it won't stay contained for long: his veins are glowing brighter and brighter under his skin, all the fire around them sinks into the ground and gets absorbed into him through his legs.

Perkins still appears unimpressed.

"So how did you meet your little girlie?"

**"Her name is Kara, and you will pay for that."**

Seeing the giant's hands burst ablaze and the fire coming out of his eyes and engulfing his brow and cheekbones, the man falters slightly, but keeps the posturing up.

"Do you take checks?" He points his gun at Luther in lieu of a 'payment'.

Truth to be told, he's reluctant to take his gun and eyes off Markus, after realizing exactly who the shadow-man is and what kind of bargaining chip is life would be... but the burning giant is clearly the bigger threat right now.

"You, all of you, are pathetic! Making friends with the monsters under your bed, and for what? An escape from inevitable loneliness? Kinship? There is no such thing." He hisses. He hears the shifter who came with them yell something about the giant possibly going to turn... good. If it survives, it could be one hell of a weapon. "Humans only ever react one way to what's different: with fear and hate. Anything remotely good to come from something outside of the norm is quickly quarantined and snuffed out! I've lived long enough to see it. History will always repeat itself!"

For one moment, no one moves.

Connor meets Markus' eyes through the distance between them— it almost sounds like Perkins is speaking from experience. He can't imagine how befriending a creature from another dimension and being found out would have ended like, in a time where people went to prison for something as harmless as their sexuality.

In tragedy, most likely –which at least gives them a motive: Perkins started this absurdly convoluted quest for political influence and power to be won at the suffering of shadow-realm creatures, when there would have probably been simpler ways, driven by grief, anger and possibly guilt.

A guilt quite possibly towards the very entity starving in his shadow and powering his 'revenge' on both worlds.

The lull breaks when Perkins fires his fifth shot, but the bullet incinerates well before coming into contact with Luther's blazing, outstretched hand.

The giant is aflame from the tip of his fingers to his elbows, and a mask of fire has stretched over the top half of his face –the fire churning within him has also expanded his body; and Luther stands taller and angrier than his friends have ever seen him.

He charges forward, but never reaches his target: under everyone's shocked eyes, Markus steps in-between Luther and Perkins, catching both of his friend's flaming fists in his hands and grunting at the painful burning sensation.

"Luther, don't!"

 **"Why are you protecting this worm, Markus?!"** The giant roars, **"He deserves to die!"**

"Markus, he's going to turn—"

"He's _not_ going to turn!" The shadow-man grits out in the other's direction, "Subdue that asshole, we'll handle this— _Josh_!!!"

Josh answers the call by decapitating one of the last souleaters still trying to keep them away from one another and running to Markus' aid.

Under normal conditions, Markus would have happily taken his chances with Luther for a spar; but like this, on the cusp of going feral and poised to kill? They'll have to tag-team it to make sure they survive.

For one second, the giant completely has his back to Gavin. He could stab him at the nape of his neck, drop him like a sack of potatoes and the problem would be solved.

One less souleater to worry about.

Gavin’s hand clenches around his knife –it suddenly almost feels too hot to wield. He remembers leaning against his car just earlier today, trying to suck in some air that didn’t taste like burnt petrol and clear the black spots crowding the corners of his vision.

He’s been pulled back from that, by the same person who so stubbornly refuses to give up on a friend.

He switches his focus entirely on Perkins— he’s been allowed a chance, the least he can do is honor such a gift with the same courtesy to another.

 

This is shit. Everything is shit. Hank can see it happen and it's all his fault. He can't even do anything about it, he's so useless— he brought these kids here and now they're all going to die.

No wonder his first wife left him, he's such a fuck up. Maybe he should have jumped off a fucking cliff when he realized how much of a fuck up he was. Maybe Connor would have been better off in foster care—

—or maybe this is what it feels like to have one of those souleater bastards wiggle-worming their way into his head.

With a grunt of effort, Hank turns around to plunge the knife through the ground darkened by his shadow; and Connor drags him away from the swirling mass of the souleater.

"There you go!" He whispers, "I've got you. I've got you..."

Hank is breathing heavily and is also sporting a minor nosebleed, now. Age and old regrets probably made him less resilient than North, but he’s not out of the fight yet.

“Let’s show these sons of bitches who’s in charge.”

He exchanges a nod with his son and picks the knife back up –it’s been a while since he’s last been in a knife fight, but bullets would just go right through these suckers.

Off to the side, they can see Veronika and Simon working tirelessly to close up Kara’s wound and bring her back and Hank hears the blond tell Vee something that sounds like ‘ _I’ve got a pulse!_ ’, but he doesn’t dare breathe his relief yet.

 

There’s only a couple stragglers remaining, but they have to join Gavin in getting Perkins to stand the fuck down, asap.

In the meantime, Markus has pushed his cloaking away from his body and entirely into his arms, likely to withstand the fire, considering it now looks like he’s wearing long, black gloves made of a thick layer of ink.

“Luther, listen to me, I don’t want to do this—”

 **“Get out of my way!!!”** his only response is a right hook to the abdomen when Luther manages to shake off one of his hands.  
Incidentally, the giant hits him right on the side that was grazed by Perkins’ bullet, and Markus doubles over in pain for a second —luckily Josh is there to jump in to try and keep their friend at bay.

Oh, well. At least the flames seared his skin closed, so Markus is no longer bleeding. Silver linings.

It almost hurts more that he’s protecting a scumbag like Perkins –whatever his motives and his traumas were, nothing justifies standing by to watch someone who was once your friend turn into a souleater and then keep them in your shadow, half-starved and just powerful enough for you to draw upon.

If Markus had his way, the vile human would suffer first, and then maybe be granted mercy of death, but with the state Luther is in, the moment he gets his hands on Perkins the man is toast, and the moment Luther kills in such a fit of desperate rage his soul will be gone and he’ll be the biggest, baddest souleater they’ve ever had to face.

“Luther come on— you’re better than this—” Josh also tries to reach out to him in halting, short sentences, as he has to cross both forearms in front of his face to brace for a flaming punch aimed right at it, a split-second that Luther uses to grab him by a leg and fling him away like a weightless ragdoll.

He’s not completely gone yet: he’s hitting them, but ultimately keeping it non-lethal and trying to just get them to stand aside and get to Perkins.

There’s still hope. They have time.

“See?” Perkins hasn’t lost an ounce of his assholery in the meantime, keeping out of range of Gavin’s blade with the help of his stolen shadow manipulation, “You monsters will just end up slaughtering each other! What difference does it make if it happens sooner?!”

Gavin would love to argue something like ‘are we going to overlook the fact that this guy is losing it because you shot his girlfriend, you fucking psychopath?!’ but he doesn’t feel like wasting breath on the man; and he needs to stay focused: Perkins has been attacking with the shadow coils so far, but he’s been keeping count and there’s still one shot in the FBI agent’s revolver.

Out of the corner of his eyes, the shifter sees Hank and Connor make swift work of the two remaining creatures separating them from him and Perkins, and tries to meet his ex’s gaze as covertly as possible.

“You’re wrong.” He says, trying to let his legs change under his clothes as inconspicuously as he possibly can. “We might be monsters… but at least we’re not dicks!”

Chancing it, he uses his morphed legs to charge at Perkins with the speed and power of a cheetah.

The FBI agent tries to take aim, but Gavin is faster. They grab at each other, grappling for control of the gun, when Connor sees the right chance: he throws Markus’ knife into Perkins’ shadow and calls out to Gavin:

“Now!!!”

Seizing the human’s wrists, Gavin pulls to drag him away from the souleater powering him. The creature tries to follow, but the knife forces it to separate from the man’s shadow and emerge from the ground in a pained, quivering, slightly amorphous mass.

“Fools!!! If you think this changes anything—”

With no fucks left to give, Hank is the one to walk up to the man and punch him right in the face.

“Shut the fuck up, will, ya?”

Perkins, drained from the forced separation and the fight, falls unconscious to the ground.

“Bad guys and monologuing, am I right?” the Lieutenant jokes, before focusing his gaze on the abandoned souleater, writhing and gasping for air it doesn’t need.

Gavin has killed many of them, and yet, this is the time he feels bad about it –he takes comfort in the fact that the Lieutenant is hesitating, too.

“Give me that.” The shifter eventually says, taking Hank’s blade and crouching by the pained mass. “I’ll make it quick.” He whispers to it, hoping to bring at least one soothing moment before a swift, overdue end.

To think that not 24 hours ago he would have watched them suffer with no remorse.  
With that out of the way, there is one main problem left: the de facto fire giant nearly losing it all over Prince Charming and the Resistance, over there.

“I have to go help them—”

Gavin stops Connor without really thinking about it.

“Don’t. Your skin is thinner and more easily burnt. You step in there, Markus will worry about you and get himself killed.”

Connor’s fists clench in frustration, but he keeps his distance, opting instead to make sure Perkins is restrained and won’t be hurting anyone anytime soon.

“Alright, that’s it!” in light of several hits that have either singed him or flat out left third degree burns on his body, Markus has apparently decided to stop pulling his punches, closing his two extra eyes and drawing up from his own shadow –the concept is similar to shadow-jumping but in reverse: rather that pushing darkness out from within, he lets the darkness at his feet get smaller as tendrils of shadows climb up his limbs and settle over his hands, hardening into claws.

He runs at Luther with all he’s got and yanks at one of the giant’s arms, sinking the claws in –it’s barely a scratch for someone as big as Luther, but it still gets his attention.

Markus pivots in place when Luther tries to grab for him, and when he feels the giant’s hand grab at his shoulder he sinks the claws of his free hand over it and heaves forward for all he’s worth, flipping Luther over his shoulder with a little help from his tail, which coils around the giant’s waist and heaves up.  
That’s when they see it.

Luther’s shadow, as he’s lifted off the ground, is too dark, too dense and too big.  
Not to mention the swirling spires roiling in and out of it in wisps.

“There—” Gavin was just about to run towards them, despite his advice to Connor, when a knife embeds itself right in the middle of the shadow, and Markus grunts under the effort of tossing Luther down at a further distance from it.

From the corner of the pool, North is still breathing shallowly but is sat up and on her way to standing.

“That’s my best friend’s boyfriend you’re trying to infect, _bitch_.”

The whiplash knocks Luther unconscious, while the guys just look at North, dumbfounded at how she pulled off the hit, when they see it: her eyes are still slightly glowing, reacting to the souleater presence.

“What? You thought that just because I haven’t banged someone from the other side, I haven’t gotten used to it?” she asks in a shrug, “Please.”

As if on cue, a shadow door opens up, revealing Lucy, followed by Leo and a whole bunch of medics.

She passes Markus with a kind smiles and huffs in pretend annoyance: “Why am I always cleaning up after you kids?”

Markus, battered, burned in places and bloody, just smiles back at her. “Sorry, Eldritch mom.”

“I’m not gonna yell at you because we have a patient in urgent need of care, but we’re gonna have _words_ later, brother!” is all Leo says instead, rushing his team to Kara to stabilize her and take proper care of her.  
Lucy is quick to run at North’s side and check on her.

“How did you know to bring doctors?” her human friend asks, and she can only shake her head.

“I didn’t, Leo came to me because Elijah was tapping the dispatch calls to 911 and heard Simon’s voice.

Josh elbows Markus in the side slightly.

“Huh. He does care, after all. A little.”

The other returns the bump, only for them both to wince at the jostling of their injuries.  
Fuck, it hurts when he laughs.

Still. He’ll have to thank Elijah for giving a crap –what a novel sentiment.

 

“So… now what?” Hank eventually asks, “This is going to be a bitch to cover up.”

“Well… not really.” Lucy gets the knowing smile on her face again, “We’ve researched Richard Perkins and his attempts at tapping into the Veil extensively, and his cover story for this unfortunate series of events is not bad— a faked leak of medical waste into the area’s water line, poisoning people slowly and making them lose their minds.”

That’s… actually pretty solid. They wouldn’t even need a scapegoat –in a city with a history of industrialization such as Detroit, it’s not outside the realm of possibility for that kind of accident to just happen.

With that being said, Lucy takes a deep breath and starts her guide chant.

There’s a whole lot of recently departed souls to herd back into the Veil –Markus doesn’t envy her. If he hadn’t just been burned half to death, he’d offer to help her with the paperwork afterwards.

As it is, he just walks up to his brother as his guys load the still unconscious but stable Kara on a gurney.

“Leo… thank you.”

His brother hugs him as gently as he possibly can, to avoid jostling his wounds. “You can repay me by making that asshole regret he was ever born.”

Markus grits his teeth through the pain and returns the hug.

“I will.” He promises, “Let the guys take Luther too, have those two wake up beside each other.”

“You’re a sap.”

“Takes one to know one, brother.”

Leo only chuckles, before letting go.

“Speaking of saps... go check on your boyfriend.”

Markus clearly doesn’t need to be told twice and all but runs –well, limps– to Connor.

“I was so scared I’d lose you—”

They both stop short at realizing they said the same thing at the same time. From the corner of their eye, they can see Veronika running back to Hank, hands still covered in blood and visibly shaken from the race against time to save Kara’s life, but none too worse for the wear and just happy that Hank is still alive and still himself.

Connor would have never thought he’d find his own father adorable, but the way he lets Vee hug him to her chest is exactly that.  
Simon is also in full mother-hen mode, marching Josh to one of Leo’s guys who were not busy helping Kara to be checked over. It makes Connor bring his attention back to Markus’ numerous scrapes and burns.

“I should let you get checked out too.”

Despite the soreness, the blood loss and the pan, Markus still leans down for a quick kiss.

“I’ll be alright.”

“Still…” the kiss is almost enough for Connor to let this slide.. almost. “Go with your brother. I don’t like seeing you in pain.”

Reluctantly, Markus pulls away from the embrace, opting to simply hold Connor by the hands –albeit gingerly, because they still hurt under the cloaking. “Let me know how things turn out on this side?”

“I’ll be listening in for the ‘bump’ under my bed.” The smile Connor gives him, along with those words, is entirely worth nearly getting burned alive for.

Markus returns it with a smile of his own, and the promise they always exchanged to each other:

“I’ll always come back for you."

 

Richard Perkins wakes up already in cuffs.  
He is in a holding room in DPD’s detention center, and can hear muffled voices from the outside. One of them is Hank Anderson, talking to someone else.

When Hank enters the room, along with Captain Allen and two more officers, it becomes clear that the gig is most likely up.

Hank almost feels bad for the man, as he watches Perkins look down at his own two feet, look back up at them with an almost cocky expression and then remembering –or maybe just realizing– that he no longer has his power source and cannot shadow-whip three men into submission.

The story as they reported it is that the contaminated waterline ran all along an area that touched Perkins’ house as well, and when Hank and his son went to warn him along with a chemist who had consulted with them on the matter, he had a psychotic breakdown and assaulted all three of them, shooting the woman point blank range to the neck.

Leo and his doctor friends did an incredibly good job of concealing themselves and ‘transferring’ Kara to a human ICU; though they only really took a breath of relief when Connor received a text from North that she briefly woke up and is regaining strength after receiving blood.

Richard Perkins has been immediately suspended from his position and will be tried for aggravated assault and attempted murder; and they’re waiting on a psychological evaluation to determine whether the man is completely out of his mind or not.

The preliminary interrogation goes about as well as it could have.

Connor isn’t allowed to sit and watch it, but as Captain Allen exits the room with Hank and the others, Perkins can be heard screaming after them:

“I’m not lying! It was them!!! They took it from me!” he screams himself almost hoarse, “They took my shadow! Shadow-people are real, and they walk among us!!!”

Yikes. It really sounds like he went off the deep end, if you don’t know it’s all true.

Connor almost feels bad about it.

 _Almost_.

He watches Hank lead Captain Allen and the other two officers out, probably to report to Fowler, and sends a text.

_» They left. You have 5 minutes._

If Perkins was sounding crazy before, he becomes downright hysterical when he sees the shadow under the interrogation table deepen and darken until a hunched figure with four glowing eyes crawls out of it.

Markus rises to his full height, without removing his cloaking except pulling the hood back just enough for the human to see his eyes and make out his fanged mouth.

 **“You tore a hole in the fabric of reality.” H** e says evenly, almost emotionless. **“You took dying creatures and made them suffer until they became weapons for you to use. You abused the Veil for decades. You’ve forced a symbiosis with a starving souleater. You shot at my friends. You crippled my father. You deserve death for what you did.”**

“The monster is back!!!” Perkins shouts with a mocking grin, unaware or possibly uncaring that after his display no one is in any hurry to come verify his claims. “Bullshit! I had your powers and you just wanted to make sure you took them back! Kill me if you wish, you’re nothing but a murderer, too!”

**“No. Granting death to the one who was starved and suffering in your shadow for years, that was a mercy to them. I won’t use you the same courtesy.”**

Perkins lets loose a hysterical bout of laughter.

“You’re making a mistake, leaving me alive!!! I’ll tell the truth! I’ll tell everyone the truth about your world! About you creatures! Humans will pierce the Veil and invade your dimension!” he yells at Markus, trying to get a rise out of him. The shadow-man regards him coldly from his standing position, watching the human shake and squirm in his chair but making no effort to get up and try to take a swing at him. Not so cocky without his other half, apparently.

Markus takes one good, last look at him.

Richard Perkins won’t face death, but he will be punished for his crimes and he crippled his career. The one thing the man truly cared about.

He is done, and he just step backwards until he can slowly sink back into the shadows, while watching the human come to some sort of realization —or maybe the overwhelming feeling of emptiness after sharing his own mind space with another creature for decades is finally catching up to him— and shoot out of the chair in a crawl towards him.

“Wait!!! Give it back!” he… demands? Pleads? Hard to tell. “I had it! I was so close!!! Give me back my shadow!!!”

…Yeah, not helping in the credibility department. Especially when the guard coming to see what the ruckus was about only finds Perkins, still cuffed but on the floor, ranting like a lunatic at the floor under the table.

They’ll probably give him somewhat of a lenient sentence, considering how absolutely batshit crazy he looks, but at least it’s bad enough that he’s deemed a danger to himself and others without a… shadow of a doubt, and will likely spend the rest of his days in a mental care facility.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Connor doesn’t stay to watch as more officers go into the room to restrain the man.

 

Kara makes a full recovery, and so does Luther, after being held in observation for a while and being informed, once he was lucid enough, that not only Kara was alive and mostly well, but that Perkins will be extensively punished for his crimes.

Funnily enough, Gavin is among the people who visit them, and apologizes to him.

“…For what?” Luther asks.

“For even thinking about killing you when I thought you were going to turn.” The shifter says, somewhat meekly, “You, Connor, Markus… all of you guys showed me that everything I thought I knew about monsters was wrong.”

Kara smiles at him, still holding Luther’s hand —he is reluctant to let her go for more than a few minutes, after coming so close to losing her.

“Most wrongs can be made right, if there’s a will to.”

It usually takes time and effort, but it’s the truth.

Gavin also takes the time to visit Veronika, and talk to her about their experiences as a Desharik –shee turns out to be an excellent counselor and does wonders for putting the younger shifter on the path to really, fully come to terms with himself.

Lucy is busy with a veritable hell of bureaucracy, but still makes as much time as possible to visit her friends and spend more time with North. They have some of the best game nights in years.

Also, she ropes Markus in making good on his unspoken promise of helping her with the paperwork— he has no excuse, now that both him and Josh received recognition for their performance on the field and Markus actually passed rank.

It means he’s slightly less out in the field and more coordinating defender teams, but it also means more free time to spend with Connor… which is exactly what he does.

After all, he still owed Auntie Vee a visit to try her legendary chocolate dessert and thank her for calling him handsome.

They’re just walking back from Hank and Veronika’s place, finally able to stop and take a breath after the hectic few weeks they just had –she hasn’t moved in yet, but it’s going to happen very soon, especially after Vee found out her boyfriend does a very poor job of looking after himself, left to his own devices.

They briefly had a talk about the whole situation with Perkins, as Hank especially was having mixed feelings about what transpired… Lucy did some digging and part of her findings what classified, but what Markus could relay to them was that, just as Perkins wasn’t a shining beacon of morality, the souleater he injected in his own shadow hadn’t been a delicate flower either, and had been spending their last few years infecting Perkins’ brain with what little strength they could muster that wasn’t being siphoned out.

Technically, the man is just as unstable as the psych evaluation deemed him, even if for entirely different reason. When Hank wondered aloud if that creature deserved to suffer and die for what Perkins did, Markus looked somewhat wistfully back at him and said “They deserved each other.”

None of them discussed it further after that.  
Which brings the two lovebirds walking along the sidewalk while Connor looks for something to brighten up the mood.

“The trial will be one hell of a party.” he mentions, imagining Perkins’ lawyer trying to defend his position on ‘ _But it was the scary men from the parallel universe!’_

By his side, Markus laces their fingers together and chuckles.

“I’m almost sad I’ll miss it.”

When he went back to report to Carl, his father just heaved a deep, long-suffered sigh and stared off into the void for a moment, downing the remnants of his scotch glass and retreating to process the past, and its consequences on the present.

Leo initially joked that they could take turns plaguing the man’s nights, popping out of closets and dark corners for the rest of time; but that way lies madness, and Leo was just happy to know the scumbag would suffer and pay for all the things he did.

Connor brings Markus back to the here and now by bumping shoulders with him:

“Oh please. We both know you hate bureaucracy.”

“Touché.” The shadowman admits with a chuckle. “Promise to keep me updated?”

To even think that he could have lost this, to never be able to see that smile again, makes Connor all the more grateful that they’re not dead. It also makes him wish they were not out in the open so Markus could drop the disguise and kiss him as his beautiful, fanged, prehensile-tongued self.

Gods above, he’s hopelessly in love.

He holds onto Markus’ hand tighter and leans into his side to whisper:

“Let’s go back to my place. There’s _another_ _promise_ I have to make good on.”

That is definitely more successful in lifting Markus’ mood, and the shadow-man lifts Connor himself, pulling him into the nearest dark corner:

“Allow me, then.”

“Markus wait—”

They’re getting used to the bumps and bruises by now, and collapsing on the floor with laughter is still an excellent start to foreplay, in Connor’s humble opinion.  
Maybe things are not perfect, and his already weird life took a turn for the weirder, but Connor couldn’t care less: he has his beloved back. His best friend.

As long as they’re together, he’ll take his chances with weird.

“Oh _fuck_ —”

Especially if weird can do _that_ with his tongue.


End file.
